This Sunday, thePittsburg Festival of the Arts will kick off with two performances at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts.
The eight-day event is a hallmark of summer at Pittsburg State and greater southeast Kansas showcasing everything from local singer-songwriters to the Bells of the Balkans to jazz trios, violin, and viola duos.
The person at the center of it all is PSU’s Director of Orchestra’s Raul Munguia who I spoke with recently.
I first asked Munguia with so many events surrounding the festival where he wanted to start.
"Oh, my goodness. Why don't we start with? It’s such a pleasure to be here and talk about the festival. And as you know it's my last one, so it's a little bit bittersweet.
But I'm happy to organize it once again. This is the 11th season of this festival and yes, you know we have 8 days of performances.
And this is the beauty of southeast Kansas, and the art is here in the region that you put out a word of invitation and they say yes.
So, they show up. So that's great."
A unique aspect of the festival are groups like Bells of Balkans who perform year after year and new groups with well-known southeast Kansas artists and arrangers.
Like Pittsburg State Professor Emeritus and former Music Department Chair Rusty Jones who will perform with Rusty and Friends Wednesday, June 14.
"You know, Rusty, he’s a legend. He's a person that everybody recognized that name here. And we've been talking about for a couple of years of doing as all, but soon recital.
And he wanted to name the event Bassoon and Friends and I said no, I changed the name without him knowing.
So, I put Rusty and Friends because I think that's how important it is.
You know it's an event that everybody will come to because of his name."
While the 11th annual Pittsburg Festival of the Arts begins and ends with performances at the Bicknell, it’s being held across a total of eight venues throughout the city.
Munguia says that due in part to the strong support for the performing arts in Pittsburg.
"That's the whole idea of this festival this summer festival, you know, and this is the beauty of a small town that they embrace.
You know, I made a Facebook post yesterday because it's so nice to have, you know, people interested in the arts here.
As you know, there's so many things going on throughout the year, especially in the summer.
But music wise it's very special. So,we have coffee shops, you know we have Roots, we have Signet, Toast, the restaurant. We have got the new corner patio place and Jolly Fox.
You know, it's nice and we are also performing at the church, the Methodist Church and the Catholic Church this time and McCray hall."
From performances scheduled for Root Coffeehouse & Creperie to the First United Methodist Church, located at 415 N. Pine, Signet Coffee Roasters, and more, Munguia says that he enjoys scheduling concerts away from such formal settings.
"You know, a lot of people think they're going to a concert hall. You have to be, you know, kind of serious and quiet and you know, formal.
But no, really music is so much fun and for us bringing this type of music to the community, it's really, really a labor of love really, we really like sharing our music with them and as you can see, we're playing classical music as well as country and rock."
It wouldn’t be the Pittsburg Festival of the Arts without a special guest.
This year,Darius Lim will visit and perform at the Bicknell on Saturday, June 17. Lim will perform as part of the Pittsburg Treble Clef Piano Competition and Festival. He’s the founder and director of the world-class ensemble “Voices of Singapore.”
A world-renowned pianist, composer, and conductor on an American tour. Munguia says Lim will collaborate with Pittsburg High School Vocal Music Director Susan Laushman on a program that includes some of his most performed works.
The concert will also feature the winner of the 2023 Piano Young Artist Competition.
"You know, they bring this artist from Singapore, and this is a touring artist that have been performing.
You know in England. In Singapore, they he's just doing his, bringing his ensemble to Carnegie Hall just a couple of days before that. And also, he's the composer and resident for the whole United States Choir convention over there in Carnegie Hall.
So, two days later, he's going to be here at the Bicknell collaborating with Susan Laushman and you know voices here from the area."
A hallmark of the festival each year are new artists, bands, or genres that haven’t been featured.
This year, Munguia says that he’s excited for artists who took part in the 2020 Virtual Festival of the Arts, who now get to perform in-person.
"Yeah, we got a few artists that were part of our COVID performances, which was virtual, you know, everybody came to the victim and recorded individually, and we released all the videos later for the week.
But Dustin Treiber, you know, is you a guy that you know he's going to be performing at Jolly Fox.
And that's a performance that we actually are looking forward to.
It's a Festival after Hours, and it's at 9:00 o'clock PM and it's going to be a Jolly Fox, and people can come and relax, you know? That's how variety we're going to have in this festival."
In addition to organizing the festal, Munguia also performs in one or two of the concerts each year, along with his wife Denissa.
She’s a professional flute player and her husband plays the violin. The two make up the group, Duo Capriccioso.
"We’re doing one of the coffee concerts and that's going to be a Signet and we're calling it beautiful, like Brewing Beautiful Tunes and we're just going to be playing beautiful tunes, you know, from Latin America.
So you know people, people that recognize that kind of genre and also, I'm collaborating with another set of artists.
On Thursday, and this is the Catholic Church I'm putting together and conducting a Chamber Orchestra of music from the Baroque era.
So, it's going to be really, really nice."
This is the final Pittsburg Festival of the Arts for Munguia . He’s accepted a position at Nazareth University in Rochester, New York, and will be moving back east this summer.
To close out this year’s festival he'll be performing with Rusty Jones in the Summer Kicks Band that is directed by Bob Kehle.
"And you know, it's a little bit of a full circle here because when I was hired in 2011, Rusty Jones hired me. He was, he was chair of the Music Department.
Now he has retired. Now Bob Kehle was assigned as my faculty mentor. And now he just retired.
And hey, I'm leaving now. So, it's a kind of a. farewell type of concert.
So, I'm happy to be here, you know, with Bob Kehle on that Sunday and organizing this with this many artists, you know and the jazz concert is always fun."
Director of Orchestras at Pittsburg State, Raul Munguia . We wish Raul and his family the best on the next chapter of their musical journey.
The Pittsburg Festival of the Arts opens Sunday, June 11, and runs through Sunday, June 18.
All events are free and open to the public.
