Angel Vigil, retiring Chairman of the Fine and Performing Arts Department, will present a farewell concert benefiting the Horizons Program at Colorado Academy on Friday, January 23, 2015, 7:00 p.m., in Froelicher Theatre.
The concert is Vigil’s farewell thank-you gift to the school in appreciation of his 31 years teaching at CA. Vigil announced in September that he would retire at the end of the 2014-15 school year.
As an additional gift to the school, Vigil is making the show a Benefit Concert for the Horizons Program at CA.
Admission to the concert is free, but donations will be accepted to benefit Horizons. So as they say about voting in Chicago – donate early and donate often at the concert. It is going to a very good cause. “Bring
your friends for a memorable and wonderful evening of entertainment for the CA community,” says Vigil.
Joining Vigil on stage will be two of his friends, Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo and EJ Rodriguez, both nationally renowned musicians, specializing in the traditional music of the Hispanic Southwest. They will provide musical accompaniment to Angel’s performance pieces, and they will showcase their own musical talents.
Trujillo is the recipient of the Governor’s Award in the Arts and the Hilos Culturales Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in preserving, teaching and presenting the music and dance of Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico and Spain. He was an Artist in-Residence under the National Endowment for the Arts and has performed numerous times throughout the Southwest in theatres, on television and radio.
He has performed on many recordings of traditional and religious music. Rodriguez is a master guitarist and composer who has performed extensively throughout the USA, South America, Central America, and Europe. He was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the USA in 1989. He holds a Master’s degree in music performance.
Rodriguez has recorded two CDs of classical guitar as part of the acclaimed guitar duo Piu Mosso, on the Fermata label.
Please make your reservation for the concert via the CA website; donations will be taken at the door. For the concert Angel will reprise many of his favorite pieces from 45-plus years of his dance and theatre performing career:
- A beautiful Zen dance/mime piece, “The Pond”, depicting one day in the life of a simple fisherman. Famed Japanese dance artist Mamako Yoneyama taught Angel the piece and gave him special permission to perform it.
- He will also perform and teach the audience a Zen poem, “Moonrise,” a unique piece for hands only, taught to him by legendary philosopher priest and self described “itinerant fool,” Ken Feit.
- The show will also include a very special and rare appearance of the Basel, Switzerland, Fasnacht Festival masks portraying the comical and poignant “Big Nose Family.”
- Angel will also perform selected masterpieces from his vast storytelling repertoire. He will include his three signature stories, “Doña Sebastina”, “Pedro de Ordimalas” and “Mucho Macho Muchacho.”
Angel’s awards include the Heritage Artist Award and the Master Artist Award from the Colorado Council on the Arts. He has also received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education and the Mayor’s Individual Artist Fellowship Award. He also was awarded the Colorado State Theatre Educator of the Year Award.
Angel is the author of six award-winning books on Hispanic and Western culture and arts. His book The Corn Woman: Stories and Legends from the Hispanic Southwest won the prestigious New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age National Award. His book Una Linda Raza: Cultural and Artistic Traditions of the Hispanic Southwest won the Border Library Association Southwest Book of the Year Award and the Colorado Book of the Year Special Recognition Award.
Angel also authored ¡Teatro! Hispanic Plays for Young People, The Eagle in the Cactus: Traditional Tales from Mexico, and Riding Tall in the Saddle: The Cowboy Fact Book. He also wrote a children’s book, “Papi, How Many Stars Are in the Sky?”
Angel is a Colorado Heritage Artist storyteller who has performed throughout the nation at festivals, universities, schools and art centers. He has been featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Keepers of the Word festival at Amherst College, the Rocky Mountain Storytelling Festival, the International Reading Association, the National Independent School Library Association, the Four Corners Storytelling Festival, the Mesa Storytelling Festival, and the Nebraska Storytelling Festival.
His specialty is the oral traditions of the Hispanic Southwest. Angel is also a member of the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities Chautauqua program for his historical presentation. Angel has created three historical characters: El Vaquero, America’s First Cowboy; El Conquistador, The Explorer of New Worlds; and Tezcatlipoca, The Supreme God of the Aztec Emperors.