Camaradas del Tejano Conjunto Festival: saludos and a feliz 2009 a todos con mucha salud, prosperidad, amor y paz. I hadn't been on the forum for a while and I just wanted to update you on the 28th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio, 2009. I will be coordinating the event once again with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and we're already working on the TCF Poster Contest. If you know of any visual artists or graphic designers that might be interested in participating, first prize has been upped to $1,000.00 this year and the winning poster design becomes the official poster for this year's TCF. Deadline for submission of work is February 20 at the Guadalupe. Awards will also be given in the jr. high, high school, college and open categories. For the complete rules and guidelines, people can go to http://www.guadalupeculturalarts.org and click on Tejano Conjunto Festival Poster Contest.
The 28th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival will be held on May 5-6 at the Guadalupe Theater, and May 7-9 (Thursday-Saturday) at Rosedale Park. We will be opening up again with the Seniors Conjunto Dance and there will be a CD Release Party on Wednesday evening. We're planning on releasing a CD of the Best of the 27th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival, recorded live from last year's festival, and if everything goes right, a 20th anniversary CD release of the very first cassette we produced from 1989. From Thursday through Sunday at Rosedale Park we expect to have the very best in conjunto music, with a one-of-a-kind line-up and performances. I hope to do a special tribute to the Accordion Wizard, Esteban Jordan, this year and other special presentations. Accordion and bajo sexto workshops will once again be held on Thursday and Friday at the Guadalupe Theater, and I think we may even be adding a Saturday workshop for those that can't be there during the week. We'll be developing all of this with Gilbert, Karlos and other camaradas in the weeks ahead. I'm currently working on the official line-up for the festival and, as always, I have limited performance time slots and money, but we'll do the best we can to produce a memorable festival for the people and fans. If you have any suggestions about which conjunto should definitely perform this year, let me know. I'll take them all into consideration and try to put a pesado line-up together. But let me know quickly because I hope to have the festival booked within this next month (Jan.-Feb.). In the meantime, if you need updates on the festival, you can go to http://www.guadalupeculturalarts.org Gracias por su apoyo y su ayuda en desparramando la palabra sobre el festival. Hasta pronto. en conjunto carnalismo, juan
The legendary musical traditions of Tony De La Rosa live on today in the group known as Cuatro Rosas. This new CD, entitled "Amor Sincero," is the second release by Tony's former band members. One listen to this CD and it is easy to tell how brilliantly this group captures the 'De La Rosa' sound. After all, these musicians were an integral part of the music that shaped a generation of conjunto music fans. They always give credit where credit is due. The four band members have said, "Tony De La Rosa taught us everything we know." Cuatro Rosas recently headlined at the Rivera Beautification Association's "A Tribute To Tony De La Rosa - Preserving The Legacy." As was expected, the group brought the house down as they totally stole the show. You can find Cuatro Rosas performing for Conjunto fans on a weekly basis.