Cool musical interludes

"Cool" in both senses of the word, since the music was fantastic and soul-soothing and the a/c was cranked up to very welcome levels at the Cactus Pear concerts I attended the last two Thursday evenings. This festival happens every summer in south Texas and I have always thought about going, but never actually sent in the money until this year. I think it will be a regular summer feature for me from now on, though!

The concerts are offered in different locations nearby, but we opted for the closest, that being Travis Park Methodist Church downtown. In addition to being a very nicely-designed venue for music, whose sanctuary looks almost more like a small theatre than a church, it's just minutes from our house. The outside fo the church is in the photo above and their unusual concert hall sanctuary is shown during an intermission below:

The musical performances were really first rate and more than once reminded me of some of the wonderful concerts I heard in various churches while in London last fall. My favorite pieces ended up being selections other than those I'd most anticipated from the program—the Mendelssohn and Elgar quintets that closed the concerts—so I had the bonus delight of learning to love some unfamiliar music. On the right is a surreptitious shot I took during the Elgar. You can see a bit of the church's impressive organ pipes in the background, though these weren't used in the CP concerts.

The lady in blue is the festival's founder Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, who, besides having such a neat name was the concertmaster of our symphony here for many years before moving on. I'm so glad she continues to do her Cactus Pear thing here, though. I only wish I hadn't waited so many years to check it out!