Mirror of Perfection
Richard Blackford
In 2026, the world commemorates the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi—one of history’s most beloved spiritual figures and a man whose message of humility, compassion, peace, and reverence for the natural world speaks with renewed urgency today. Chorale San Miguel will honor this extraordinary legacy with Mirror of Perfection, a concert bringing together music from the eighteenth century and the present day.
The centerpiece of the program is British composer Richard Blackford’s Mirror of Perfection, a powerful and deeply moving cantata for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, and instrumental ensemble. Blackford sets seven poetic texts attributed to Saint Francis, exploring an extraordinary emotional range: wonder at the beauty of creation, tenderness toward animals and birds, the transforming power of love, the ordeal of suffering, and an impassioned longing for peace.
Blackford’s music is immediate, colorful, and richly expressive. At times intimate and contemplative, at others rhythmically vibrant and dramatically charged, it portrays Francis not as a distant historical saint, but as a profoundly human being whose spiritual vision remains relevant to our own troubled age. The work culminates in a fervent plea for reconciliation and peace among all people.
This performance will feature two exceptional soloists with beautiful voices: baritone Rodrigo Yurahi and soprano Karina Pegueros. They will join Chorale San Miguel and a chamber orchestra of strings, horns, harp, and percussion in bringing Blackford’s remarkable score to life.
The concert will open with the brilliant Toccata in D major by Giovanni Battista Martini, performed on the historic Johnson pipe organ by Chorale San Miguel’s artistic director, Malcolm Halliday. Padre Martini—Franciscan friar, celebrated teacher, theorist, and composer—was perhaps the foremost of all Franciscan composers and one of the most influential musicians of eighteenth-century Italy.
Halliday will also be the soloist in a lively eighteenth-century concerto by Giovanni Battista Sammartini. The concerto and a new festive hymn arrangement by Halliday will be conducted by Chorale San Miguel’s conductor-in-residence, Mauro Ledesma.
The hymn, based upon the beloved tune Lasst uns erfreuen, will unite chorus, organ, harp, horns, and strings in a jubilant celebration of Saint Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures. Sung in English and Spanish, it will evoke Francis’s joyful praise of the sun, moon, stars, earth, water, fire, and all living things.
In the resonant and historic setting of the Templo de la Tercera Orden, Mirror of Perfection promises to be an unforgettable musical tribute to a saint whose radiant vision continues to challenge and inspire the world.
Organ Plus Concert
Iván Koulikov, cello, and Malcolm Halliday, organ
A member of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Koulikov has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout Mexico, the Americas, and Europe. He was first-prize winner of the Concours International Salut Talantov in Paris and received honors in Mexico’s Concurso Nacional de Violonchelo Carlos Prieto.
Koulikov began studying the cello at the age of six with his mother, noted teacher Ludmila Beglarian. A remarkable young musician, he became principal cellist of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas at fifteen, having made his concerto debut at the age of twelve. He later pursued advanced studies in France and worked with internationally renowned cellists and teachers including Peter Wispelwey, Alban Gerhardt, David Geringas, Antonio Meneses, and Xavier Gagnepain.
In addition to his work with Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra, Koulikov is active as a teacher, chamber musician, and soloist. His career and musical life are also the subject of the documentary La sinfonía del músico.
This Organ Plus concert brings together the expressive richness of the cello and the sonority of San Miguel’s historic pipe organ in an intimate musical collaboration between two accomplished performers.
Repertoire to be announced.
Thur, Dec. 10th, 2026
6:00 PM
Templo de la Tercera Orden
San Miguel de Allende, GTO
Messiah, Part 1
G.F. Handel
This December, Chorale San Miguel presents two performances of Part One of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, one of the most beloved and inspiring works in the choral repertoire. With its magnificent choruses, expressive solos, and vivid orchestral writing, Messiah has spoken to audiences around the world for nearly three centuries.
Composed in 1741, Messiah is unlike a conventional opera or oratorio: it has no single narrator and no characters who enact the story. Instead, Handel draws upon a sequence of biblical texts to create a sweeping meditation on prophecy, hope, and redemption. Part One carries us from the prophetic promise of consolation—“Comfort ye, my people”—through the anticipation and celebration of the birth of Christ. The music moves from quiet expectancy to radiant joy, culminating in the angels’ proclamation, “Glory to God in the highest.”
Handel’s extraordinary gift was his ability to unite grandeur with intimacy. The familiar choruses possess tremendous energy and architectural power, while the arias reveal an equally remarkable sensitivity to the meaning and emotional character of the words. Moments of majesty are balanced by passages of tenderness, reflection, and pastoral beauty. Whether encountered for the first time or welcomed back as an old friend, Messiah continues to offer audiences an experience that is both profoundly moving and wonderfully uplifting.
These performances will bring together Chorale San Miguel, orchestra, and an outstanding group of vocal soloists under the direction of Malcolm Halliday. The soloists will include the celebrated mezzo-soprano Vanessa Jara, whose rich and expressive voice has won widespread admiration, together with René Baruch, Daniel Sandoval, and Charles Raines. Each brings a distinctive musical personality to Handel’s demanding and deeply expressive solo writing.
Chorale San Miguel has presented Part One of Messiah on several previous occasions, most recently two years ago. Its return this December offers both longtime listeners and those experiencing the work for the first time an opportunity to share in music that has become inseparable from the Christmas season. With two performances bringing together chorus, orchestra, and distinguished soloists, these concerts promise to be a highlight of San Miguel’s Christmas season.
The Vanderbilt Melodores
Chorale San Miguel is delighted to welcome the Vanderbilt Melodores, the acclaimed a cappella ensemble from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, for a special concert in San Miguel de Allende.
Founded in 2009, the Melodores have developed an international reputation for their energetic performances, exceptional vocal musicianship, and imaginative arrangements. Their repertoire crosses musical boundaries, ranging from popular music and jazz to gospel, bluegrass, traditional a cappella styles, and contemporary hits.
Winners of NBC’s The Sing-Off in 2014—and the only collegiate ensemble ever to win the competition—the Melodores have performed and toured throughout the United States and around the world.
Their San Miguel appearance promises an evening of extraordinary voices, close harmony, infectious energy, and the sheer fun of great a cappella singing.
Program details will be announced soon.
Sat, Jan. 30th, 2027
6:00 PM
Templo de la Tercera Orden
San Miguel de Allende, GTO
The Peacemakers
Karl Jenkins
In February, Chorale San Miguel presents The Peacemakers, the powerful and deeply moving work by contemporary Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. Written for chorus and orchestra, The Peacemakers brings together words associated with some of history’s most inspiring advocates for peace, creating a work that is at once reflective, uplifting, and profoundly relevant to our own time.
Jenkins draws his texts from an extraordinary range of voices spanning centuries, cultures, and religious traditions. Among them are Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Anne Frank, the Dalai Lama, Albert Schweitzer, and Saint Francis of Assisi, alongside passages from sacred and poetic sources. Despite their very different origins, these voices share a common conviction: that reconciliation, compassion, understanding, and peace are possible even in a world marked by division and conflict.
Jenkins is one of the most widely performed living composers of choral music, known for an immediately recognizable musical language that combines the traditions of Western classical music with influences drawn from cultures around the world. In The Peacemakers, moments of great simplicity and intimacy alternate with passages of tremendous rhythmic energy and sweeping choral sound.
For this performance, Chorale San Miguel will be joined by a chamber orchestra, organ, and percussion, creating a rich and varied palette of sound while retaining the immediacy and intimacy so important to the work. Jenkins makes particularly imaginative use of percussion, rhythm, and instrumental color, sometimes evoking musical traditions far removed from the conventional European concert hall.
At the center of the performance, however, is the human voice. Jenkins conceived The Peacemakers as a celebration not of political power or military victory, but of those who have imagined another way forward. Its texts remind us that the pursuit of peace has appeared again and again throughout human history, expressed in different languages, faiths, cultures, and generations.
At a moment when the message of The Peacemakers seems especially timely, Chorale San Miguel invites audiences to experience a work filled with beauty, hope, and an enduring belief in our shared humanity. It promises to be one of the most memorable and meaningful concerts of the season.
Sat, Feb. 20th, 2027
6:00 PM
Templo de la Tercera Orden
San Miguel de Allende, GTO
Women Composers
Women in History
This season-closing concert celebrates women in music and women whose lives have shaped history, bringing together works by distinguished contemporary women composers with music inspired by remarkable women of the past.
At the heart of the program will be Malcolm Halliday’s cantata Clara Barton, portraying the extraordinary life of the pioneering American nurse, humanitarian, and founder of the American Red Cross. Barton’s courageous service to wounded soldiers on the battlefields of the American Civil War and her lifelong commitment to relieving human suffering made her one of the most admired women of her era. Drawing on her remarkable story, the cantata brings her determination, compassion, and independent spirit vividly to life through music.
The program will also feature Mar de Sueños by Diana Syrse, one of Mexico’s notable contemporary composers. Syrse’s inclusion brings an important Mexican voice to a program devoted to the creativity and accomplishments of women.
Music by the prominent American composer Andrea Clearfield will also be featured. Known for her expressive and imaginative choral and instrumental writing, Clearfield has developed an international reputation for music that draws inspiration from poetry, history, culture, and the human experience.
Mauro Ledesma, pianist and conductor-in-residence of Chorale San Miguel, will be the concert’s featured pianist, joining the Chorale in a program that will include additional works by women composers.
Together, these works will create a celebration of women as creators, artists, humanitarians, and agents of change—bringing the Chorale San Miguel season to a close with music that connects artistic achievement with the lives and stories of extraordinary women.
Sat, Mar. 20th, 2027
6:00 PM
Templo de la Tercera Orden
San Miguel de Allende, GTO
Organ Plus Concert
Eleanor Feingartner, clarinet, and Malcolm Halliday, organ
Sat, April 2nd, 2027
6:00 PM
Templo de la Tercera Orden
San Miguel de Allende, GTO