“Kissin’ Cousins: Spanish Vihuela Meets Classical Guitar The Threads of Memory Lecture Series

Composer, performer, and educator Dr. Gregory Alan Schneider will give a brief introduction to a Renaissance stringed instrument, the Spanish vihuela, show how it led to the development of the modern classical guitar and demonstrate vihuela literature on a modern guitar played from the original Renaissance tablature. His lecture, “Kissin' Cousins: The Spanish Vihuela and the Modern Classical Guitar," is free with museum admission (Sundays free to NM residents).

Schneider holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of North Texas. His compositions have been performed in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He was an orchestra member with the Santa Fe Opera and currently serves as its Artist-In-Residence. He served as interim music director for the Los Alamos Choral Society and teaches at UNM-LA. He is the director of Music Together of Los Alamos, which provides preschool music education to children ages 0-5 and their parents. He teaches guitar and is composing a string quartet based upon the experience of the children in the Terezín concentration camp in present-day Czech Republic.

The final upcoming lecture in the Threads of Memory Lecture Series:

Sunday, Jan. 9, 2 pm: “Tejiendo el Hilo: Weaving the Threads of History,” lecture by State Historian Rick Hendricks.

The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States (El Hilo de la Memoria: España y los Estados Unidos) features nearly 140 rare documents, maps, illustrations and paintings – many of which have never been displayed outside of Spain — from a 1602 field drawing of a buffalo to portraits of President George Washington. For five centuries, Spanish explorers, colonists and diplomats have played key roles in American culture. This exhibit explores the first 300 years of those encounters – from the friars who made first contact with Native peoples through Spain’s timely assistance to American forces in the Revolutionary War.

Each week throughout the exhibit, which closes on Jan. 9, 2011, the museum will feature lectures, musical performances, panel discussions and more to further explore the role Spain has played in shaping America as it is. After its debut in the museum’s Albert and Ethel Herzstein Changing Exhibits Gallery, the exhibit travels to the El Paso Museum of History and the Historic New Orleans Collection.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Fundación Rafael del Pino and, along with the Archivo General de Indias (General Archive of the Indies), is co-organized with the   State Corporation for the Spanish Cultural Action Abroad (Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, or SEACEX), in collaboration with Spain’s Ministries for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Culture.

In New Mexico, the exhibition and lecture series are presented with special support from BBVA Compass Bank, the city of Santa Fe, Wells Fargo Bank, Heritage Hotels, Santa Fe University of Art & Design and the Palace Guard.