Border CrosSing pairs Navidad Nuestra with Latin-American Baroque villancicos in Spanish and Nahuatl.

Ticket Link/Entradas: https://bordercrossingmn.ticketspice.com/navidad-nuestra-sat-24

Border CrosSing continues its holiday tradition of performing Navidad Nuestra by Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez, first performed by the ensemble in 2017 alongside a bilingual version of Handel?s Messiah. This year?s program pairs Navidad Nuestra with Baroque villancicos from Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru, which will be performed in Spanish and the Indigenous language Nahuatl. 

Led by Border CrosSing?s conductor and Artistic Director Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa, the music on this program centers the Holy Family?s role as refugees in the Christmas story, a perspective that is often left out in concert programming in the United States. In previous years, audiences have been especially moved by the work?s haunting ending, where the Holy Family flees into Egypt to avoid capture. 

Music from Latin America dating back to the 1500s is a central part of this program. Each of these pieces celebrates a different aspect of the season, illuminating historical and spiritual connections worlds apart. Listeners have often remarked on how timely and surprisingly modern these Baroque musical gems sound today.

The concerts feature Border CrosSing?s award winning choral ensemble, soloists, a full Andean band playing traditional South American instruments such as zampoñas, charango, and bombo, as well as several of the Twin Cities? top early music instrumentalists: Asako Hirabayashi (harpsichord), Clea Galhano (recorder), and Margaret Humphrey (violin). This concert offers a rare opportunity to hear the combination of Andean and European instruments in joyful celebration.

Performances are Saturday, 7 December at 7pm at Academia Cesar Chavez School in Saint Paul and Sunday, 8 December at 4pm at Church of the Ascension in Minneapolis.