International Activities
Southwest Chamber Music has had extensive international activity in Europe, Mexico, and Asia. In 2010, Southwest Chamber Music completed a major U.S. State Department-sponsored program with Vietnam – the Ascending Dragon Music Festival and Cultural Exchange – which was the largest cultural exchange in the history of the two countries and received worldwide media coverage. The project consisted of six weeks of programming, three weeks in Vietnam and three weeks in Southern California.
In December 2009, Southwest Chamber Music toured to Mexico, representing the United States at the Guadalajara FIL Arts Festival, an arts festival produced alongside the world’s largest Spanish book fair. Guadalajara invites one host country each year, which in 2009 featured 16 arts organizations from Los Angeles. The ensemble reunited with the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble of Mexico City for the performances.
In December 2006 the ensemble produced cultural exchange programs with Cambodia’s Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, the 2006 World Culture Expo at the temples of Angkor Wat, and the Vietnam National Academy of Music. These were the first residencies by an American ensemble since the end of the Vietnam War and Khmer Rouge era in Southeast Asia.
In May 2007 Southwest Chamber Music performed at the UNAM Center in Mexico City with a cycle of five concerts of the complete chamber works of Carlos Chávez, joined by the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble. This was the first complete retrospective of Chávez’s output in Mexico.
The ensemble has also been presented by the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., Cooper Union in New York City, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Getty Center, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Ojai Festival, and Luckman Fine Arts Center. Guest conductors appearing with the ensemble have included Oliver Knussen, Stephen L. Mosko, and Charles Wuorinen. In March 2003 Southwest Chamber Music became the first American ensemble to perform at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna.
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