Mérida ·
The Yucatán Symphony opens its season in Mérida
The Yucatán Symphony Orchestra opens its September to December season at the Palacio de la Música, in the centre of Mérida. The first programme is Mexican from start to finish and includes the world premiere of a new work by a Yucatecan composer. There are nine programmes through to the end of the year, and the full calendar is already out.
A Mexican programme to open
The opening concert brings together works by Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez, two central names in Mexican concert music. It adds a tribute to Daniel Ayala, a composer born in Yucatán, marking 120 years since his birth, and the world premiere of a new work by Roberto Abraham, a Yucatecan composer.
Opening with a local premiere says a lot about the orchestra. It does not only play the familiar repertoire: it also gives a stage to the music being written in the peninsula today, and to the people who wrote it before.
If you have never heard Revueltas live, it is worth it. His music is rhythmic, colourful and deeply Mexican, and it sounds different in a hall than it does on a recording.
Nine programmes through December
The season has nine programmes between September and December. It mixes the international repertoire any concertgoer expects with works by Mexican and Yucatecan composers, so there are concerts for people who already know the orchestra and for people going for the first time.
Dates, times and tickets for each programme are published on the orchestra's website, sinfonicadeyucatan.com.mx, and at the Palacio de la Música box office. Concerts are ticketed. It is worth checking the calendar early and picking a couple of dates before the end of the year closes in.
The Palacio de la Música
The Palacio de la Música stands in the historic centre, a few blocks from the Plaza Grande. As well as the concert hall, it is a museum devoted to Mexican music, with galleries you can walk through during the day that explain where trova, bolero and jarana come from.
Going to a concert there is a good excuse to walk the centre at night. The temperature drops, the squares fill with families, and the city looks different with its façades lit up.
If it is your first symphony concert
You do not need to know anything about music to enjoy it. Arrive a few minutes early, because once a piece begins, nobody is let into the hall until the next break. Wear what you would wear for an evening in the centre: nobody expects a suit.
One custom worth knowing: many works have pauses between movements, and the audience does not clap there. The applause comes when the conductor lowers the baton and turns to face the hall. If in doubt, wait for everyone else.
And if you are going with children, a weekend midday concert is usually the easiest choice for a first time.
A city that lives its music
The symphony is only one part of it. Mérida has free open-air music almost every week, such as the Thursday Serenata Yucateca in Parque de Santa Lucía, where trova and jarana have been performed for decades.
That mix, an orchestra with a formal season and music in the street every week, is part of what makes people who move here feel the city has a cultural life of its own, made for the people who live here and not only for tourism.
From the coast
If you live in Progreso, the centre of Mérida is about forty minutes away by road. A weekend concert and dinner in the centre, back by the sea the same night, is a plan you can do without rushing.
That is exactly what this part of Yucatán offers: the calm of the coast and, half an hour away, a city with an orchestra, museums and serenatas.
