San Miguel de Allende and the Student Music Program

San Miguel de Allende is a UNESCO World Heritage city with a mix of cosmopolitan character and baroque architecture, which reminds people of the beautiful hill towns of Spain or Italy.

It is a safe city drenched in sunlight - where culture, music, art, history, community and creativity provide the ingredients needed for inspiration and discovery. San Miguel is located in the state of Guanajuato in the central highlands.

For over a decade San Miguel has been on every major "Best Cities of the World" list. CondéNast 2009 Readers' Choice Award named San Miguel one of the top three best cities in the Americas. San Miguel's music school facilites, performance venues and historical highlights are clustered around the compact 'centro' area, making it a very walkable and secure city – a place where music students can enjoy their surroundings in an international music festival environment.

Friends and family receive substantial discounts on hotels should they want to attend all or part of the festival. Rental houses are also available within walking distance from all activities.

Summer weather is comfortable, with highs in the 80’s and low’s in the 70’s.

Vladimir Lande, Director; Nina Beilina & Nancy Stagnitta , Instructorsq

We're pleased to announce Mr. Lande as Director of the U.S. Advanced Student Music Program for 2010. He brings a wealth of experience in working with students and leading student musicians and graduate musicians in music festival programs in the U.S. and Europe. We're also glad to have Nina Beilina, Gold Medal Violinist and flutist Nancy Stagnitta who currently serves as Instructor of Flute and Chamber Music at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Artist/Faculty at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy instrucing t at the Advanced Music Student Program in August 2010.

Conductor Vladimir Lande is the Principal Guest Conductor of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra
(Russia). He is a guest conductor of the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington D.C., Music Director
of the COMSIC Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Soloists Chamber Orchestra in Washington D.C.,
the Maryland Conservatory Orchestra, and Johns Hopkins Chamber Orchestra. He regularly appears as
Conductor with the famous Donetsk Ballet Company in Europe and the United States. For the past seven
seasons, Vladimir has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Bachanalia Festival Orchestra, New York. Lande
performed with his group, the Poulenc Trio during the San Miguel Music Festival in 2008.

“I’m also very happy about the low price of this student musician program, which is offering so much in this
small and safe city,” said Vladimir.

Nina Beilina’s career was launched behind the Iron Curtain after winning Gold Medal in the Enescu International competition, Grand-Prix at the Long-Thibaud International competition and Bronze Medal at the Tchaikovsky International competition. In recognition of her extraordinary achievements, Beilina was awarded the Vercelli Gold Medal (Vercelli Medaglia D’oro) as Musician of the Year for 1983, an honor she shares with the likes of Renata Tebaldi, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Igor Stravinsky. Bachanalia’s Founder & Artistic Director, she performs extensively in Europe and the United States, both as a soloist and with Bachanalia. Her appearances as soloist include concerts with most of the world’s leading orchestras, such as the Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, Detroit, Atlanta and St. Louis Symphonies, as well as with the Los Angeles and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestras in the US. Her foreign concerts include appearances with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, the RAI Orchestra of Turin, the Liverpool Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony and countless others. In addition to her concert engagements, Beilina is a distinguished, much sought-after teacher, a professor at the Mannes College of Music in New York, gives master classes in Italy, Spain and Taiwan where in 2007 was successfully established Bachanalia-Taiwan.

Flutist Nancy Stagnitta who currently serves as Instructor of Flute and Chamber Music at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Artist/Faculty at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, and principal flutist with the Traverse Symphony will join Valimir Lande, the Poulenc Trio, and Nina Beilina, Gold Medal violinist, as in-residence instructor for the Advanced Music Student Program in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Nancy has been praised for her “brilliance and beauty of tone” by The Baltimore Sun, and is featured on the recent Capstone Records release, “Points of Entry: Contemporary Works for Solo Flute by American Women Composers.” She was appointed as U.S.I.A.Artistic Ambassador to southern Africa, where she presented concerts and masterclasses, and has performed at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Napoli in Italy, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and on the Voice of America Broadcast Network.
“We are so pleased to have Nancy join us in San Miguel. She has excellent teaching and festival program experience,” said Valdimir Lande, Director. Nancy is a former piccoloist with the Sarasota and Baltimore Operas, and continues to perform with the Baltimore and Key West Symphonies, as well as the National Philharmonic. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington, D.C., the Annapolis Symphony, and the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, and was also featured with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic after winning that orchestra’s Virtuoso-in-Progress Concerto Competition in her native state of New York. She earned the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Music from the Peabody Institute, where she received the Ashworth Prize.

She has been invited to perform at the National Flute Association Conventions held in New York City, San Diego, Kansas City and Washington, D.C., and recently presented masterclasses at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona, Butler University, Bowling Green State University, and the Texas Music Educators' Association Conference. Equally active in the realm of jazz, Ms. Stagnitta was twice selected as a finalist for the U.S.I.A./Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador program. She has appeared at the Sarasota Jazz Festival and as featured artist at the National Flute Association’s “Late Night Caberet.” NPR describes her CD with guitarist Rob Levit, entitled “Joy of My Life,” as "bringing forth beauty that leaves one breathless."

Her teachers include Robert Willoughby, Tim Day, and Mark Sparks.

During the San Miguel International Chamber Music Festival the Advanced Music Student Program will provide four private coachings with in-residence instructors including Nina Beilina, four private chamber music ensemble coachings, ten orchestra coachings, plus Master Classes with festival performers including the Endellion String Quartet from London, the Miami, Miro, Calder, Carlos Chavez and Haven String Quartets and Vladimir Lande’s Poulenc Trio.

According to Lande and some of the finest music groups performing today, such as the Ying and the Miami String Quartets, San Miguel de Allende, a UNESCO World Heritage town, is an ideal setting for students to stretch and perfect their musical capabilities. Located in central Mexico, the town looks and feels more like an ancient Spanish hill-town with its cobblestone streets, 18th century colonial architecture, lively town square, and beautiful churches and theaters all adding to the creative atmosphere for the student program. “I have taken many students to Europe to participate in music festivals there,” said Vladimir Lande. “When I saw what San Miguel de Allende has to offer, I immediately realized it was a great opportunity for U.S. advanced music students to participate in an internationally respected music festival.”

Students also attend professional concerts during the festival and meet and mix with many top music students from the University of Mexico (UNAM) and other music academies in Mexico. As San Miguel de Allende is consistently listed in Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Magazines as a highly rated vacation destination, friends and families may also want to attend all or part of the festival. Special rates will be offered by the San Miguel Hotel Association to these special guests.

“Students have many opportunities to polish their skills as a musicians by playing in front of a very appreciative public during the festival,” said Sands, President of the Festival. “Imagine playing in the center of our historic city in the town square as tourists stop to listen, the mariachis smile, the children gather around, local people break into applause - and each student becomes an international ambassador for bringing joy through music.” Student ensembles and the student symphony will in play theaters, historic venues and churches. Plus the festival awards the two best student groups First and Second Place and they are invited to return and perform in the 2011 San Miguel Chamber Music Festival. The cost of the 16 night, 15 day U.S. Advanced Music Student Program is $1,850.00 USD. Sixteen nights’ lodging with North American families and two meals a day are included.