Oaxaca: The Historic Organ Festival 3

Tamazulapan, the painted table organ (© IOHIO)

On Saturday we traveled north to the Mixteca Alta region to hear two concerts, the first at the folk baroque church of Tamazulapan. Here the musical program was supplemented by a marimba and the guitar trio Terceto Cuicalli.  
We also visited the grand organ case at Santiago Teotongo (more on Teotongo to come)

Tamazulapan, the musicians play in front of the magnificant colonial altarpiece 

In the afternoon we converged on the Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan, newly restored and the grandest of the 16^th century Dominican priories in the region

With the refurbishment of the nave and its many gilded retablos, 
Yanhuitlan now looks much as it did in colonial times

Here we were entertained by the organist Jesús López Moreno with the vigorous assistance of the trumpeter Juan Luís González, in a varied program of baroque music.

The grand organ at Yanhuitlan, resplendant with restored gilding and painted pipes, sits on its own pillar beside the choir loft.

The painted organ at Zautla (2005 picture)

Our last stop of the day was at San Andrés Zautla where we were entertained with music, dancing and dinner by the villagers, followed by an organ concert accompanied once again by marimba player Gabriela Edith Perez Diaz and the guitar trio Terceto Cuicalli.

The dancing "tias" of Zautla

text ©2014 Richard D. Perry.  photographs by the author except where noted.