![\"BEJ-FIP550x240\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/bjuarez\/files\/2011\/04\/BEJ-FIP550x240.jpg\")
Last week, I had the honor of conducting at the Puebla Cathedral as part of the International Palafoxiano Festival in Puebla, Mexico.\u00a0 The Festival celebrated the 480th anniversary of the founding of Puebla, a beautiful city with a rich arts tradition that is home to Mexico’s largest arts archive.<\/p>\n
Puebla is a city that\u2019s always been very dear to me, so I was particularly excited to participate in this important festival. Throughout my career I\u2019ve conducted three or four major concerts at the Cathedral and have recorded ten CDs with music from the Cathedral\u2019s archives, so it is a place that holds great joy for me as a musician.<\/p>\n
As the Lamentations of Jeremiah was read,\u00a0 images on three large screens depicted the challenges faced by modern-day Mexico including violence, drug abuse, and violence against women.\u00a0 Even though the Hebrew Testament passage centers on the destruction of the Jewish Temple centuries ago, it was clear that it had much to say to us today.<\/p>\n
As it was the start of Holy Week, the concert also included a musical interpretation of Tenebrae in which fifteen candles are gradually extinguished, leaving the church in total darkness. \u00a0 A performance of two compositions written in the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> centuries by Ignacio Jerusalem and Manuel Arenzana that had not been heard in 200 years were also performed, featuring mezzo\u00a0soprano Carla Dirlikov and bass David Cushing.<\/p>\n