“Orchestras are political; they work toward a common good: music.”

▲ The concerts were held Saturday and Sunday at the Blas Galindo Auditorium at Cenart and the Los Pinos Cultural Complex. Photo: Bernardo Mijangos/Cenart

Angel Vargas

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 2, 2025, p. 4

There should be no politics in music, according to conductor Enrique Arturo Diemecke: Not, at least not in the sense we understand it. Orchestras, as human groups, are political. But here things are different, and they do work. We all work together harmoniously for a common and supreme good: music .

The composer and violinist, also a composer, responded in this way to a humorous provocation that followed his comment about a political figure. "It's just that I belong to a different party; the truth is, I'm not a member of any ," he explained with a laugh, setting the friendly tone that would characterize the rest of the interview with La Jornada.

Considered one of the most important conductors in our country, Diemecke visited Mexico City this weekend to conduct, as a guest, the Carlos Chávez School Orchestra (OECCh), part of the National System for the Promotion of Music.

The student group prepared the program "Of Myths and Legends," featuring "A Night on the Dry Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky and "Symphony Fantastique" by Hector Berlioz. The concerts took place on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, in the Blas Galindo Auditorium of the National Center for the Arts (Cenart) and the Los Pinos Cultural Complex.

Although musical training isn't something he's been able to pursue throughout his career as often as he'd like, he said it's very important for the conductor to work with budding musicians or young students, as is the case with the atrium players who make up the aforementioned group.

I learn too, not just young people. We have to learn everything in life. We must come with the idea that it's a school; if we learn poorly, it stays that way , he indicated.

We must learn to do things well. For example, to control the momentum at certain moments and, sometimes, when the work warrants it, let it flow. We must always keep in mind that the music comes first; it always comes first.

He elaborated: “I really enjoy working with youth orchestras because they are growing musicians. Everything you tell them must convey that message of learning and retention, something that must be applied when needed. It's very satisfying to see their growth, their dedication, their enthusiasm, and the adrenaline rush of youth.”

That's why it's a privilege to participate in their training; the results are seen almost immediately. Whenever I have the opportunity to participate in situations like these, I leave feeling happy and fulfilled, because I, too, have grown and strengthened my knowledge.

He indicated that when working with a professional orchestra, these types of experiences serve, above all, to remove stagnation, so that the musicians continue to feel fresh in the need to be professional and perform a work as if it were the first time or, better said, the last .

Good musical educational structure in Mexico

Among other things, Diemecke acknowledged advances in current musical education in Mexico, contrasting it with his time as an apprentice, where access, he asserted, was limited, and music, rather than a profession, was seen as a trade.

“There were no youth orchestras in the country in those years. Many of us trained at home: we came from musical families, and we got our instruments from our parents, relatives, or friends. There were no institutions—like the current System for Musical Development—where one could receive a scholarship to study and pursue this discipline,” he explained.

We had to work to help the family get ahead and become professionals at a very young age. For example, I did it at 13, in the Guanajuato Orchestra. I want to clarify that it wasn't child exploitation; no one forced me; it was something I longed for.

In his opinion, the contrast with today is striking: Today, young people have educational structures, scholarships, and specialized teachers. They arrive at professional auditions better prepared, with the orchestral repertoire already studied .

Diemecke welcomed the existence of more music education institutions in the country: "That's why we have more orchestras and more young musicians with a learned repertoire for these groups. In my time, we all aspired to be soloists; now it's understood that playing in an orchestra is an art in itself ."

Regarding his work leading the Michoacán Symphony Orchestra, of which he has been artistic director since late 2023, he noted that he is currently in a very exciting phase of work and undergoing a renewal process.

It's been a very interesting approach. There are very good musicians in Michoacán, as well as a good audience. So, there's great interest on their part in keeping the orchestra alive and moving forward.

He emphasized that, currently, one of the priorities has been to fill vacant positions, in addition to achieving a balanced schedule.

It's about not always presenting the same old favorites and the same programming. I've introduced many new works, but always keeping at least one traditional piece in the programs, so that the audience isn't scared off, so that they know they'll have a balance between the new and the traditional. So, I think we're on the right track , he concluded.

▲ Maestro Diemecke at the head of the OECCh, during the program "Of Myths and Legends." Photo by Ángel Vargas

Angel Vargas

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 2, 2025, p. 4

The Blas Galindo Auditorium at the National Center for the Arts (Cenart) became a place of the unusual last Saturday.

Under the wise baton of guest conductor Enrique Arturo Diemecke, the Carlos Chávez School Orchestra (OECCh) embarked on a unique sonic journey through unexpected times and places with the program "Of Myths and Legends," which was repeated yesterday at the Los Pinos Cultural Complex.

It was a kind of musical exorcism in which mountain demons and hallucinated lovers danced to the rhythm of the notes of A Night on the Barren Mountain, by the Russian Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), and The Fantastic Symphony, by the French Hector Berlioz (1803-1869).

A captivating experience for the audience, which filled almost three-quarters of the venue and enjoyed the feverish vitality of the young members of the group for nearly an hour and a half, guided by the composure, knowledge, and intensity of that mature Mexican director, one of the most important figures in national music today.

For every musician, it is always a privilege to share what they love most in life: music , Diemecke commented in a brief intervention, microphone in hand, before raising the baton for the first time and beginning that sort of spell made up of that pair of works that have to do with the supernatural.

It sounds corny, I know, but music is food for the soul. And it is because our spirit is always full of anxieties, worries, love, passion, dedication, happiness, and sadness, and we need something to help us balance all of that. That's where music comes in.

Mussorgsky's work was a sonorous witches' sabbath. The brass spewed flames, the strings cast disturbing shadows. Diemecke, like a shaman, drew from the young performers an infernal crescendo that culminated in redemptive bells.

"That evil mountain teaches us that after the storm comes calm, that nothing is lost ," the director announced at the beginning. The audience, ecstatic, burst into applause at the end of the piece.

Berlioz's Opium Dream

After a brief intermission, the psychedelic journey of the Symphonie Fantastique began. Beforehand, Diemecke took the microphone to tell the anecdote about this work. Berlioz, heartbroken by love, attempted suicide by taking opium, but dreamed of his own death, he recounted.

The work was a dreamlike journey of five movements in which the strings and woodwinds went from sigh to cry, the brass led to brilliant moments, and there was also a passage in which the English horn and oboe emulated the dialogue of two shepherds in the field.

Furthermore, a march led the way from the scaffold to the guillotine, and the Gregorian dies irae (song of anger) mingled with the laughter of the witches to conclude this bizarre experience in this way.

The audience, somewhere between astonished and still enthralled, reacted festively to such a powerful and accomplished performance, with thunderous applause. The young musicians thus demonstrated that they have managed to form a cohesive, balanced, and powerful orchestra.

Diemecke, true to his passionate style, conducted both works from memory, without a score; nor did he use a baton. He inhabited the music and let it inhabit him, based on his signature choreography, in which the marvelous sound becomes ductile material that he molds between his hands and the rest of his body, with showy movements that range from the subtle to the dizzying.