The Journey of Cantabile

Shortly afterwards Luz and Luis had to ask for a one-year break to prepare their wedding, promising to return to the group rehearsals by October. John didn't take their departure lightly and was not very optimistic about a group of only four people. Fortunately the recruiting was very succesful, so John's spirits were very high again, as they began to rehearse for the first set of summer concerts with seven new members (Ana, Diana, Liz, Luis Fernando, Enrique, Alejandro and Luis Raúl). At the same time we all agreed in the name Cantabile and the stage was set for a nice comeback.

 After this first summer concerts consisting mostly of Latin American repertoire, the group began to concentrate its efforts on the first Christmas season, which is typically the most important for the group.

With Luz and Luis back,the 2003 Christmas season had a few nice concerts including classical music, Christmas carols and gospel repertoire. The most important concerts were on St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the home church to John and the place of our rehearsals, and St. John Chrysostome Catholic Church, which is our home church, where we sing every sunday. Thankfully, we received good comments. Still, it was clear we had a long way to go.

After having a very animated anniversary party and a well deserved January break, somehow the idea came to make a trip to Europe, with some concerts performed there. Again, Luz and Luis had to excuse themselves from the project as their were overseeing the construction of their new home. John also was not to make the trip. The group started then with John to rehearse a mostly mexican repertoire to sing in Europe, as we wanted to show people there our musical roots. Chucho worked also very hard to be able to direct the group without John. The trip took place in September of 2004, and was a most succesful one with concerts in various cities in France, and Germany.

 Back in Guadalajara, with a very tired but happy group we began the rehearsals for the 2004 Chistmas season, incorporating new, more complex material. We worked very hard, and the 2004 Christmas concerts were very satisfying as a growing number of people became our enthusiastic followers and we had more concerts, including a charity concert in a local orphanage.

 Our second anniversary was bittersweet as we learned that John and Sandy were moving back to the United States. John and Sandy had been the glue that made all stick together so well, and now we were going to have to do without them.

 With John and Sandy now gone, we knew we wanted to take a "snapshot"  of the group as it was now, more mature, with lots of nice repertoire and still fresh with the profound footmark that John imprinted on us. So the Entrad Pastores CD project was born.

 It was a little strange to be rehearsing Christmas music in February but we spent a lot of time polishing the selected songs that we would record. We had to ask a lot of people for help, as we didn't have many technical or monetary resources. Marco Martínez (marquillo) gladly offered his gadgets (protools, shure mics) as well as his time to be able to do the recording. The UNIVA also let us use their chapel, which has very nice natural acoustics, as a recording studio. So we spent a whole weekend doing the takes for the CD. It was a new experience for us as a group, and at times some tension built, but it came down OK and, very tired but relieved and happy, we were able to start working on the post production of the recording.

 Luis led the editing and post-prodution of the CD with the help of the group and, again, some of our friends, like Sofía Berumen, who did the french lyric translations. Our idea was to go beyond the cheap look and sound that most independent productions suffer and to work extra hard to polish every little detail from the sound of the CD to the graphical design. We even had to have a few extra recording sessions, but these were done in Luz and Luis's place. There were a lot of sleepless nights, specially as the december deadline loomed. Finally, we were able to send the material to the press (again, thanks to Alberto Escobar for being so helpful and forgiving) and we had our CD fresh for our first 2005 Christmas concert at the UNIVA Chapel on December 18th.

If you are reading this, you may already know what happened next. Fortunately, our 2005 Christmas season has been our most succesful yet, with many private and public concerts at the usual places, and some new ones, like the season-closing concert at the Guadalajara City Museum. The album Entrad Pastores was enthusiastically received, and we sold close to a thousand (no small feat for a local group), allowing us to cover our debts and turn a small profit. We also received some local FM airplay and some radio interviews. Many people outside of our close circle came to know us and bought our CDs.

As we didn't want the rights of the recording and the management of the money to become a problematic issue to us, we formed a society, aptly named Cantabile, S.C. which now holds the rights for this and any upcoming recordings as well as the name, logos and all the material produced.

What comes next? This year 2006 is coming slowly for the group, and we are struggling a bit to prepare new material without the help of John. Some members asked for a break and the thought that we may have another recording ready for this year has vanished, but this doesn't worry us, as we are now just relearning to work together and going back to the basics, we think this will be the basis for an even stronger comeback. In the meantime we are preparing for the 2006 Christmas season with all-new material and a few surprises. Stay tuned for confirmed dates. You can also hear us sing every sunday at the 11 o´clock mass in St. John Chrysostome Church, here in Guadalajara.