Saturday October 18, 2025
7:30 PM
Kim Robards Dance, Denver, CO

This October, the Playground String Quartet is excited to celebrate Fall with a Colorado premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s ceremonial Altar de Muertos, which is inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. The concert will also feature Eclectic Huapango and Two Dances by composer Alfonso Molina, which focuses on prehispanic Mexican traditions that have endured beyond Mexico’s Spanish conquest. In a climate where diversity is undervalued and often actively oppressed, the Playground Ensemble is proud to present a concert of string quartet pieces featuring composers from Mexico.

This concert will feature an ofrenda and the players will be wearing sugar skull masks made by local artist Josefina Calzada. Please bring offerings so we can include you in our community ofrenda!

7:00 PM doors, 7:30 PM show.

Sarah Whitnah, Violin
Jackson Bailey, Violin
Allyson Stibbards, Viola
David Short, Cello

Program

Eclectic Huapango and Two Dances: String Quartet No. 1 by Alfonso Molina

This string quartet is based on three Mexican traditional rituals from the prehispanic world, that have prevailed after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. This quartet uses rhythmic motifs from the old and new Mexican culture. The Huapango rhythm — which is normally used in Mexican songs from the Huasteca Potosina region — is used as an ostinato rhythm at the beginning of the piece, using a ternary basic unit.

The second movement (Dance I) is based on a traditional ritual from the Totonac Indians from the Gulf of Mexico that is still celebrated today in the 21st century, with the name of “The Flyers of Papantla”, where four men slowly descend a high pole, to which they are all tied to with a rope to one of their feet, while another one plays a pentatonic flute from the top of the pole. This ritual represents the five elements from the indigenous world that they treasure, as well as the changes that take place during the year in their community.

The third movement (Dance II) is based on the prehispanic conception, that volcanic stones hold old souls inside them and that these souls, escape in the form of sparks when being exposed to fire.

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Basado en tres rituales tradicionales mexicanos que han prevalecido tras la fusión del mundo prehispánico y la conquista. El cuarteto utiliza motivos rítmicos de la vieja y nueva cultura mexicana. Huapango ecléctico — Ritmo de ostinato dentro de una unidad básica ternaria, utilizada en canciones populares mexicanas, especialmente en la región de la Huasteca Potosina.

La Danza I está basada en el ritual de los indios totonacas del Golfo de México (Voladores de Papantla), en la que cuatro hombres descienden lentamente de un palo del que están atados de las piernas con una cuerda, mientras que otro toca una flauta pentatónica, representando los cambios del año dentro del mundo indígena y los cinco elementos del mundo prehispánico que ellos atesoran.

La Danza II está basada en la concepción prehispánica, de que las piedras volcánicas conservan almas viejas dentro de ellas y que éstas escapan a través del fuego como chispas al crepitar de las piedras ardientes.

Altar de Muertos by Gabriela Ortiz

“The tradition of the Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico is the source of inspiration for the creation of a work for string quartet whose ideas could reflect the internal search between the real and the magic, a duality always present in Mexican culture, from the past to this present.

Altar de Muertos is divided into four parts, each of these describe diverse moods, traditions and the spiritual worlds which shape to the global concept of death in Mexico, plus my own personal concept of death. First part: "Ofrenda." This music describes the visit of four spirits to the altar, each one singing his/her own ofrenda (offering) towards the end of this movement, the four spirits converge in a single chant to as the end of a funeral procession.

Second part: "Mictlan." Pre-Hispanic Culture conceived death as a cycle in constant movement; A cycle where life is extended towards death and vice versa when death becomes in the essence of life itself. The passage of death, and the eternal struggle between night and day recreate and obsessive ritual music always in continuous movement which starting and ending points are always bonded.

Third part: "Danza Macabra." Human life is like a shadow. The advent of European culture in Mexico and Mesoamerica brought an image of death which is static, motionless, where there is only place for a constant alternative between glory and hell. This music is nourished from fantastic images taking place one after another. Phantasmagoria and magic are always present.

Fourth part: "La Calaca." Syncretism and the concept of death in modern Mexico, chaos and the richness of multiple symbols, where the duality of life is always present: sacred and profane; good and evil; night and day; joy and sorrow. This movement reflects a musical world full of joy, vitality and a great expressive force. At the end of "La Calaca" I decided to quote a melody of Huichol origin, which attracted me when I first heard it. That melody was sung by Familia de la Cruz.The Huichol culture lives in the State of Nayarit, Mexico. Their musical art is always found in ceremonial and ritual life.”

— Gabriela Ortiz

Featured Mask Artist: Josefina Calzada

A native of Mexico who has lived in the US for almost forty years, Josefina is a versatile artist. She has been a large-species veterinarian, ceramicist, jeweler, costume designer, seamstress, Spanish teacher, and Balinese gamelan musician. Josefina studied Ceramics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She designed and manufactured all costumes for Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez’s operas Don’t Blame Anyone and El Señor de los Sueños. Josefina was Costume Designer at PUSH Physical Theatre.