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The Weekender: A brand new museum, Luminaria, and the Soli Chamber ensemble

One of several buildings at Museo Del Westside
Jack Morgan
One of several buildings at Museo Del Westside

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If you live for the weekend, Texas Public Radio can give you an edge by detailing three events in town that you should consider going to.

MUSEO DEL WESTSIDE
First off, there’s a new museum revealing the West Side’s attributes and challenges.

“You and I are talking in a space that we called the Rinconcito de Esperanza, which translates into the little corner of hope," said Graciela Sanchez of the Esperanza. So it's a satellite project of ours that we started back in 2001."

Their creation of oral histories and collection of photos from the neighborhood led to this: a new museum called Museo del Westside. The museum feels very homey, but also quite professional.

“It's beautiful. People walk in and they just see it, and they're blown away by the quality of the design,” Sanchez said.

Their grand opening is Saturday morning, and it’s free.

LUMINARIA
Then on Saturday night, one of San Antonio’s you-don’t-wanna-miss-this event: Luminaria. Yadhira Lozano is their executive director.

“If you come up to Luminaria Saturday, at 5:30 we're having our opening ceremony, and then from six to midnight, we're activating the streets and buildings of St Paul square with all of the arts,” Lozano said.

“We have a music stage, a film stage. We've got large art installations. We have live painting demonstrations going on. We have a fine art gallery at the Aiden Hotel on Commerce Street, she added.

They’re also extending a few blocks north to Nolan Street to include San Antonio Street Art Initiative’s brand new mural park. Luminaria is also free.

SOLI CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
Next up is the Soli Chamber Ensemble. Soli performs primarily contemporary classical music rather than 300-year-old compositions that most people have heard many times over. Here’s Soli’s Ertan Torgul.

“Yes! So this weekend is part of our 30/30/30 project. We did a call for scores, and we got 293 compositions, to select only 30 of them. And we've been performing them both in San Antonio, around Texas.”

In other words, contemporary composers sent their compositions to Soli. Seven of those 30 musicians will be at Trinity University to watch their compositions be performed by Soli on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

“We're going to workshop their pieces, we're going to perform it for them, and then there will be a concert at four o'clock,” Torgul said.

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Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii