"Nashville is at a crucial juncture in its history. We are not yet a truly diverse city,
but we are about to become one, and the real question is, Can we do it right?"
Luis Fonseca, executive chef of the Nashville City Club
Opened Basante's, father from Nicaragua
The Nashville City Paper published this profile of Luis Fonseca, the executive chef of the elite Nashville City Club. Fonseca's father was born in Nicaragua.
“My father put me in with his chefs when I was 17,” said Fonseca, who now serves as executive chef of the venerable Nashville City Club.
But long before then, the career of Nicaraguan-born Luis Fonseca Sr. impacted an impressionable lad.
“He used to come home at about 3 o’clock in the morning, wake me up, spend time with me, get a little sleep — and then go back to work,” the younger Fonseca said. “I remember my father working 16 to 17 hours a day. He was on his feet all the time.”
The physical toil eventually sidelined the banquet manager, a respected member of San Francisco’s diverse culinary community.
About that time, in the mid-1990s, Fonseca Jr. was pondering a move to Music City, lured by the opportunity to open with a relative what would become Basante’s.
La Chureca, the city dump on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua, could be the setting for a dreary, futuristic movie. A city of scavengers, many of them orphans, they live in the filthy heaps of refuse at this municipal garbage dump. Clothed in rags, they rummage for food, scrounging out a meager existence by selling the small trinkets or recyclables they find, or sometimes selling their own bodies to survive.
A graduating senior at Vanderbilt, Emily Lineberger, plans to dedicate a year following graduation this May to helping these otherwise hopeless orphans through Manna Project International, a humanitarian organization formed by Vanderbilt students to bring hope to some of the poorest communities in the Western Hemisphere.
Senior Duncan Fulton, a Spanish and European studies major, also has signed on with Manna. After graduation he’ll spend a year in Quito as a program director for Manna’s newest site in Ecuador. A Dallas native, who studied for a year in Madrid and visited Nicaragua on a spring break trip, has deferred entrance into Tulane University Law School until after his year in Quito. He hopes to create educational and legal aid programs there.
Seniors Holly Ward and Tressa Hoektra have signed on to go to Ecuador and Nicaragua, respectively.
Formed in 2004, Manna is run and staffed predominantly by Vanderbilt students and alumni. The organization is best known for its year-long immersion experience in Managua, and more recently, Quito, but also offers a spring break trip and a summer program.
Lineberger, a human and organizational development major from Winston-Salem, N.C., counts herself among the many in her class who have not lacked for “the creature comforts in life.” While she could have taken the summer off to prepare for graduate school, law school or the corporate world, instead she plans to shed “the Vanderbilt bubble” to serve as a program director for Manna’s Managua site for 13 months.
“I want to stay for a year so that I’m not just another American stepping in to ‘fix’ things and then leave,” Lineberger said. “It’s about me saying, ‘Let me enter into this with you.’ It’s about shedding my vanity, being stripped of materialism and getting outside this beautiful, sheltered place called Vanderbilt.”
During her sophomore year at Vanderbilt, Lineberger heard about Manna from a friend and decided to sign up for a spring break trip to Nicaragua. Her week there included working with children at a pre-school, repairing a playground facility and helping teach English and nutrition classes.
Lineberger thought she was prepared for the country’s living conditions, but found herself overwhelmed when she arrived at La Chureca. An estimated 1,500 people call the city dump home – more than half of them under the age of 18 – and are plagued by malnutrition, disease and heartbreak.
“It was animalistic; I have never seen anything like it,” she said. “It was shocking to hear personal accounts from the children, who sniffed glue because they were so hungry – it was their only escape. And to hear girls saying that their fathers sent them out to prostitute themselves to the garbage collectors in order to get the best scraps – you can’t describe it.”
Lineberger said that week in Nicaragua was less about making a difference in the Nicaraguans’ lives than being changed herself.
“You can’t make much of a difference in a few days. It’s just not possible,” she said. “But once you’ve seen what goes on there, you are forever changed. Once you have seen it, you can’t go back home and forget about it. You have to do something.”
Lineberger will live in a rented house in Managua with other college graduates, many of them from Vanderbilt. Like her fellow volunteers, she has raised $7,000 to pay for her food, housing and program fees for the year. During that time she will set up community outreach programs based on her interest in health education.
“I like the idea of counseling, emotional stability and health,” she said. “I want to work with kids and families and show them how to have a sense of pride in having a healthy body.”
Fulton agrees that the students won’t be able to change the world but they will do what they can.
“I can’t change the legal system,” Fulton said. “But I want to try setting up some programs that will help people. In the end, I think the experience will affect how and in what areas I choose to practice law.”
One of Manna’s founders, Lori Scharffenberg, has been in Nicaragua since the program’s inception. She and others designed the organization to provide a tangible way for students and recent graduates to make a long-term investment in community service. They also wanted students to be able to serve in areas that they enjoyed and were passionate about. That formula seems to be working.
“We believe that by bringing the community together, each with our individual passions, we can serve another community with a holistic approach,” Scharffenberg said.
The organization currently has three staff members and 13 volunteers, and more than 400 individuals have participated in the program since its creation. In addition, approximately 65 Vanderbilt students have traveled under Manna’s banner to other international sites hosted by partner organizations for spring break trips, including Peru, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico and El Salvador.
While traveling abroad presents concerns for personal health, safety and maybe even homesickness, Lineberger is more anxious about how she’ll be changed emotionally by the experience.
“The biggest challenge right now is the idea that I am about to have my whole worldview rocked,” she said. “It’s different than a short-term trip. When you live somewhere for a year, it becomes your community and you are forced to see the issues right in front of you. You can’t hide. It’s going to be scary, but it’s also going to be life-changing.”
William Walker, the Nashville invader who claimed presidencies in Mexico and Nicaragua
"As widely known as that of any other living man in the Old World or in the New"
"He ought to be hanged for making so many attempts, causing so much bloodshed and never succeeding"
April 19 auction includes Walker portrait and related books, lettersThe Saturday, April 19, auction of items from the estate of Margaret Lindsley Warden features a portrait of once-famous Nashvillian William Walker.
In the years leading up to the U.S. Civil War, Walker went from being a Nashville schoolboy to claiming the office of President in both Mexico and Nicaragua and making enemies of entire nations and even Cornelius Vanderbilt (see this article in the Vanderbilt Register).
Walker was the subject of this sentence written by the New York Times in 1857:
The name of William Walker is, by this time, as widely known as that of any other living man in the Old World or in the New.
and this sentence, also by the New York Times, in 1860:
If he be a brigand, and an enemy of the human race, as most civilized people now consider him, he has merited the gallows a dozen times over for divers[e] robberies, murders and piracies; and if he be a hero and philanthropist, he ought to be hanged for making so many attempts, causing so much bloodshed and never succeeding.
as well as this sentence by Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario in 1912:
The defense against the famous Yankee has remained as one of the most brilliant pages of the history of the five Central American republics.
Walker's history is commemorated by this Nashville historical marker, a picture under this Wikipedia article for the original meaning of the word "filibuster," and a 1987 Ed Harris movie called "Walker," which featured the tag line, "Before Rambo... Before Oliver North..."
The upcoming auction is scheduled in Knoxville in conjunction with three other estate auctions, Eberling said. Among Warden's family treasures to be sold are also a 1505 book from the Lindsleys' family book collection, a portrait of William Walker — one of Nashville's most colorful residents and president of the Republic of Nicaragua in the mid-1850s — family jewelry and silver.
Jim Hoobler, senior curator of art and architecture at the Tennessee State Museum, said he hopes some of the items find a home in the downtown museum.
"She's probably the last in a line of great families," said Hoobler, who knew Warden since the 1970s.
"This is history of Nashville. Our hope here is that we can acquire some of the important items of this collection like the William Walker portrait. These sort of things need to be in public collections where everybody can look at them, not in someone's living room with only one person looking at it."
Important portrait of William Walker, "The Grey Eyed Man of Destiny", by Nashville artist, George Dury (1817-1894). The painting is signed on the back, "Dury 1858". Oil/gouache on paper. This painting had previously been attributed to artist Washington Cooper in John Edwin Woodrow's book, "John Berrien Lindsley" (illustrated on page 85).
William Walker was a physician, lawyer, and journalist. A Nashvillian, Walker was the only Tennessee born president of another country, the Republic of Nicaragua.
At age 14, Walker graduated from the University of Nashville. He was then awarded a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania at age 19. He became qualified to practice law in New Orleans in 1847 and later became editor of the New Orleans Crescent. In 1848, he became the editor of the San Francisco Herald.
The "manifest destiny" vision of the time reflected Walker ambitions. In California, He began the efforts of organizing a filibustering expedition to conquer Lower California and the State of Sonora. He invaded Mexico in 1853 and proclaimed himself President of Lower California, violating U.S. neutrality laws. Later in 1853, Walker organized a small expedition of men to conquer Nicaragua. Within five months, he was made commander in chief of the new coalition provisional government of Nicaragua. In 1856, William Walker was elected as the President of Nicaragua. In the summer of 1856, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and San Salvador declared war on Nicaragua.
Cornelius Vanderbilt viewed Walker as a threat to his American Transit Company in Nicaragua and aligned Costa Ricans against him, forcing him to surrender to U.S. Naval Authorities. In 1857, Walker planned his return to Nicaragua with a force of 240 volunteers. Elements of the U.S. Navy demanded his surrender for violating U.S. neutrality acts. Walker was brought back to the U.S. where President James Buchanan and several Senators castigated him for his filibustering activities. Walker became bolstered by a wave of Southern support and unsuccessfully attempted subsequent expeditions to Nicaragua.
In 1860, The blockade maintained by British and American cruisers in the Caribbean forced Walker to take another route to Nicaragua through the east coast of Honduras. He was pursued by a large force of Hondurans and a British war ship. After surrendering to a British captain, Walker and his men were turned over to the Honduran authorities. Walker was given a trial and executed by firing squad on September 12th, 1860.
Note - William Walker was a close friend of Dr. John Berrien Lindsley, and this is the only portrait known painted from life of him. Original frame. Condition - very good condition for age, small tear to upper margin. Dimensions sight 7 1/2" x 9 1/2", frame 13 1/4" x 16 1/4". Circa 1858. Lindsley Warden estate.
Note - Nashville artist, Friedrich Julius George Dury was born in Wurzburg, Bavaria and exhibited at the Munich art Association. He arrived in Nashville in 1850 and painted several prominent Tennesseans including Felix Grundy and Civil War officers including General P.G.T. Beauregard, General William Rosecrans, General George Thomas, Governor Brownlow. He also did bust portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
Additional items with this lot - Four books related to William Walker: "The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854-1861" by Robert E. May, 1973 (signed and inscribed to Margaret Lindsley Warden), "Destiny and Glory" by Edward S. Wallace, 1957 (ex-library copy), and "El Filibustero" by Clinton Rollins (paperback, 1976), with author's signature and inscription to Margaret Lindsley Warden, which reads "The first volume of a set to be enriched by her generous contribution of Walker's letters to Dr. Lindsley (which will be reproduced in a succeeding volume) -- with cordial greetings from the author.", and "Freebooters must die: The Life and Death of William Walker.." by Frederick Rosengarten.
Additional items - a period photo showing two soldiers in a Central American setting standing in front of a fortified building with sandbags surrounding it. Stamped on the back, "MI BOHIO CIENFUEGOS".
Additional item - an eight page letter dated March 1872 Nashville written by J.C. Thompson in which Thompson gives a biographical summary of Walker's life to Scribner's Monthly, New York.
Last item - a letter from Nicaragua by Dr. Alejandro Bolanos Geyer in 1974 transcribing and translating to Spanish articles written by William Walker.
Grew up hearing Spanish and answering in EnglishEric Volz, the immigrant from Nashville to Nicaragua who was cleared of a murder conviction in that Central American country in a case that is still not over, told a group of Belmont University students about the Hispanic portions of his autobiography in the context of a media ethics lecture.
Volz was born and raised in Sacramento and considers himself a Californian. He was 13 when his father, a musician, decided to move to Nashville to pursue a musical career.
Growing up, family members spoke to Volz in Spanish and he would answer in English.
His Mexican grandfather was the catalyst for his immersion.
"It was because of him that I really learned the language," Volz said in Spanish. "I learned about the culture, how to read it, write it and talk with the accent."
Volz's Mexican-American family lived in border towns. His mother, Maggie Anthony, was raised in Nogales, Ariz.
He went to several high schools and remained interested in Latin America and added another hobby — photography. He went to school at the University of California, San Diego, and majored in Latin American cultural studies.
Spanish-TV brings local Spanish-language programming to Nashville airwaves
Giancarlo Guerrero, Jose Feliciano, international "lucha libre" champion, Metro Schools among 2008 interviews
Airs on Telemundo Nashville
Episodes also available onlineNashville-based Spanish-language television show "Spanish-TV" announced its second season in this press release:
Second season of Spanish-TV
2008 brings exciting changes to Spanish-TV
Expanded segments on governments issues regarding the hispanic community, new sports segments including Spanish wrestling along with more entertainment and news segment. Airing weekly on Telemundo Nashville, Spanish-TV has become a hit in the Hispanic community.
Advertisers have been enthusiastic about the show's unique reach into our community and have committed to support our show in 2008.
The show’s Eye on Nashville segment continue its man-on-the-street interviews that feature a detailed look at our Hispanic heritage.
Episodes of Spanish-TV are thirty minutes long and are broadcast Saturday mornings at 10am via Comcast Cable Channels 246 and 611, on Charter Channel 24, or on the program's web site spanish-tvtucanal.com, under the link for "See the Show."
The Hispanic Nashville Notebook had previously reported here on a different locally-based Spanish-language TV show, Noticias Locales, aired on Telefutura and in conjunction with WTVF-Channel 5. At the time, Telemundo was looking for local content, which it appears to have found with Spanish-TV.
Megan Volz romance tests fairness of Nashville courts after brother Eric's trial raised same question in Nicaragua
Eric Volz vindicated on same day Megan goes to Nashville police
Visaless Uruguayan ex-boyfriend had five-year employment record in high-end Nashville restaurant scene: Park Cafe, Watermark, PM, Bound’ry, others
Relationship doomed after pregnancy and subsequent abortion
After assault charges, premature deportation would prevent defense at trial
"The sheriff is talking to local judges about whether such cases should be properly adjudicated."The Nicaragua murder trial of Nashvillian Eric Volz, who has since been exonerated in the death of his former girlfriend Doris Jiménez, led HispanicNashville.com to wonder aloud (see stories here and here) whether the anti-American sentiment that was whipped up against Volz in that Central American country was truly a foreign concept to Nashville, in light of the negative emotions that have raged against visaless internationals in this city.
In an incredible coincidence, as the Nashville Scene reports here less than one year after Volz's conviction, Volz's sister Megan has started what may be short-circuited criminal and immigration proceeding against her Uruguayan ex-boyfriend and his brother, both five-year Nashville residents without long-term visas:
Megan Volz and the Diemarch brothers
[O]n the same day a court was vindicating her brother, 24-year-old Megan went to Nashville police to report that she’d been assaulted by her then-boyfriend Guillermo Diemarch and his brother Juan Carlos Diemarch. .... The brothers came to the U.S. legally five years ago on a 90-day visa from their native Uruguay. They never left and never reconciled their immigration status. ... Volz and Guillermo met in 2006 while both were working at one of Nashville’s best restaurants, the tony Park Café in Sylvan Park. Volz worked in the dining room, Guillermo in the kitchen. Park Cafe was not his only employer. ... In the five years that the brothers lived in Nashville, they worked at some of Nashville’s best culinary establishments—Watermark, PM, Bound’ry, Batter’d & Fried, Park Café and the now defunct Chu, to name a few. ... Three months into the relationship, however, Volz got pregnant, Guillermo says. She had an abortion, and Guillermo says that it was extremely hard on both of them. “It was after that,” he says, “that we started fighting…. She was upset by that, and so was I. I understand that.”
Case sent to the grand jury, but no criminal trial, no immigration judge
Jailkeeper and judges make decisions togetherJudge Turner then decided that this was in fact an incident of domestic abuse and ruled that the case be bound over to a grand jury. ... “The computer for some reason did not read that there was a pending charge,” [Sheriff’s department spokeswoman Karla] Crocker says. As a result, Juan Carlos was picked up by ICE and transported out of Tennessee to a federal holding facility, even though he still faces charges in Nashville. ... Crocker also says that the sheriff is worried about immigrants gaming the system by using all of their constitutionally protected rights. ... She says that the appeals can take months and the sheriff is talking to local judges about whether such cases should be properly adjudicated or if the immigrant defendants should just be deported. ... Elliot Ozment, a Nashville immigration attorney who sits on Sheriff Hall’s 287g citizen review board, is aghast that the city’s jail keeper has such a cavalier attitude toward the appeals process. ... The attorney says that he was unaware that the sheriff was consulting with judges about the disposition of criminal cases. ... "I don’t know why Metro’s jail keeper would have any standing to talk to a criminal judge about the adjudication of a criminal case or criminal cases in general unless it impacted jail conditions."
Ozment is concerned that such moves could be a signal of a larger trend in Metro’s legal system when it comes to immigrants. “I have some serious concerns about attempts by local officials to tilt our judicial system against the foreign born,” says Ozment. “I think it would call into question serious constitutional implications.” ... No matter how the criminal charges are adjudicated, the brothers will be sent back to Uruguay without a hearing before an immigration judge.
Photo: Residents of de San Juan del Sur tried to lynch Eric Volz, one of the accused in the murder of Doris Jiménez. Source of photo and caption: La Prensa, Nicaragua
Eric Volz is not a murderer, says appeals court; freedom still in question
Talk radio hosts call for vigilante justice after immigrant's criminal conviction is overturned
The Tennessean is reporting here that the murder conviction of Nashvillian Eric Volz has been overturned, but that he may remain in the custody of Nicaraguan officials.
Volz, an American immigrant to Nicaragua, was running a bilingual magazine in that country when his ex-girlfriend was murdered late last year.
Earlier this year, Volz was convicted of the crime in what his family and U.S. officials deemed to be a sham affair clouded by anti-immigrant fervor (see related stories here and here).
From the Tennessean:
Joy gave way to worry hours after the Eric Volz family heard the 28-year-old had been freed from a Nicaraguan prison but remained in the country, where radio broadcasters called for vigilante justice against the American accused of killing his former girlfriend.
A Nicaraguan appeals court on Monday overturned Volz's conviction and 30-year prison sentence and ordered his release.
The Associated Press reported that Volz, of Nashville, had been freed from prison in the town of Granada, some 25 miles east of Managua, but the news service said his whereabouts were unknown. ... A family spokeswoman and an official in Washington said Volz had not been released.
On Saturday, August 11, 2007, Mariela Flores was crowned Miss Tennessee Latina USA 2007-2008, and Audrey Taveras was crowned Miss Teen Tennessee Latina 2007 at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
The event was emceed by presenters Jonathan Camcam (Director of Festival de las Naciones) and Mrs. Jill Rivera (Mrs. Tennessee 2007). Entertainment was provided by Danny Salazar as well as Rachel Lampa.
The participants competed in personal presentation, modeling, evening wear, and the Miss Tennessee Latina category competed in swimwear as well. One of the primary roles of the future queens is to be a positive role model for the Hispanic community by way of community service.
The two winners will participate as representatives of the Latin beauty of Tennessee in the national Miss America Latina pageant, which will take place next year in Mexico.
In the MISS TENNESSEE LATINA category, the winners are as follows:
* Mariela Flores: Miss Tennessee Latina 2007-2008, of Mexican descent * First Runner-Up: Karla Neal (Mexico) * Second Runner-Up: Maryin Chaves (Nicaragua) * Miss Community Service: Lucia Muñoz (Ecuador)
In the MISS TEEN TENNESSEE LATINA the winners are:
* Audrey Taveras: Miss Teen Tennessee Latina 2007-2008 (of Dominican descent) * First Runner-Up: Deborah Posada (Nicaragua) * Second Runner-Up: Cheyenne Garcia (Mexico) * Miss Teen Community Service: Daisy Garcia (Mexico)
Bios follow:
MISS TEEN TENNESSEE LATINA 2007-2008 Audrey Taveras 16 years old Morristown, TN Both parents are Dominicans She is a Junior at Morristown Hamblen East High School, with a GPA of 3.6. Her favorite class is Newspaper, where she serves as Arts & Entertainment Editor. She is part of the Downtown Dance Company in Morristown She is involved in two community service groups.
MISS TENNESSEE LATINA 2007-2008 Mariela Flores 21 years old Mariela currently works as a personal assistant to one of the most productive real estate agents in the city. She plans to attend college at the beginning of next year. One of her biggest dreams is acting. Mariela was born October 2, 1986 in the city of Queretaro, Mexico. She is the daughter of Pedro and Irma Flores. In her free time she likes to read, travel, enjoy time with her family and do community work for the Hispanic community.
Photo (Left-Right): Miss Teen Tennessee Latina Audrey Taveras, Miss Tennessee Latina Mariela Flores
Giancarlo Guerrero takes top spot at Nashville Symphony
Famed conductor has Central and South American roots
Nicaraguan-born and Costa Rican-raised Giancarlo Guerrero will become the Music Director of the Nashville Symphony starting in 2009, according to this press release:
Nashville Symphony President and CEO Alan D. Valentine announced today that Giancarlo Guerrero will become Music Director of the Nashville Symphony beginning with the 2009/100 season. A native of Costa Rica and current Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, the 38-year-old conductor was unanimously selected to be the Symphony's 8th Music Director by a 12-member search committee, half of whom were musicians from the orchestra. Leonard Slatkin, who has served as Music Advisor of the Nashville Symphony since 2006, will conclude his tenure at the end of 2008/09.
Mr. Guerrero has developed a relationship with the Nashville Symphony through four subscription engagements over the past two years and was the first guest conductor to lead the Symphony following the death of its last Music Director, Kenneth Schermerhorn, in 2005. He is currently in his sixth season as Music Director of Oregon's Eugene Symphony and will continue in that post through the 2008/09 season. Under the terms of an initial 5 year contract extending through 2012/13, Mr. Guerrero will conduct 10 weeks of concerts with the Nashville Symphony in 2008/09 as Music Director Designate and 14 weeks as Music Director beginning in 2009/10.
"We are all truly excited about Giancarlo's appointment," commented Alan D. Valentine. "From his first concert with the Nashville Symphony in the week following Kenneth Schermerhorn's death, the chemistry between Giancarlo, the musicians and the audience was apparent. Each return engagement since then has strengthened our relationship and reconfirmed what we already knew – that Giancarlo is the right conductor to take our orchestra to the next level. I speak on behalf of the musicians, staff and board in welcoming Giancarlo and his family to Nashville and to the Nashville Symphony."
"It is a great honor to become the next Music Director of the Nashville Symphony," remarked Giancarlo Guerrero. "I look forward to wonderful music-making with the musicians of the orchestra in their terrific new hall and to continuing the orchestra's rich and long recording tradition. This is an exciting time in the orchestra's history and it is my privilege to accept the responsibility of leading this orchestra to new artistic heights. I am thrilled about working with President Alan Valentine, the orchestra's staff, board members, and the musicians of the Nashville Symphony, and my family and I are looking forward to becoming a part of the Nashville community."
"The appointment of Giancarlo Guerrero ensures the continued growth of the Nashville Symphony," said Nashville Symphony Music Advisor Leonard Slatkin. "His dynamic leadership with the Symphony over the past several seasons made him the clear choice for this position. I know that he will add vitality and excitement to the community, as well as be a perfect fit for the orchestra."
Giancarlo Guerrero will lead the Nashville Symphony as its first Music Director since the opening of its new home, the $123.5 million, 1,844-seat Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened on September 9, 2006 to critical acclaim. Both Mr. Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony are champions of American music, which the Symphony has highlighted through its American Encores initiative – featuring "encore" performances of works by living American composers and American masters that have been performed rarely or only once previously (at its premiere) - and through its award-winning recordings on Naxos' American Classics series. Mr. Guerrero initiated a guest-composer series in Eugene, where under his leadership the ensemble has hosted several of America's most respected composers, including John Adams, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis and Michael Daugherty.
Hailed for his precise yet sensitive performances, Mr. Guerrero has guest-conducted many major American orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. He served as Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1999-2004 and made his Minnesota Orchestra subscription debut in March 2000 leading the world premiere of John Corigliano's Phantasmagoria on the Ghosts of Versailles. Mr. Guerrero recently made his European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and his UK Debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
During the 2007/08 season Mr. Guerrero will conduct the Nashville Symphony's first classical series concerts on September 13-15, as well as Verdi's Requiem on May 8-10, 2008. In addition to his performances in Nashville and Eugene, Mr. Guerrero's conducting engagements this season include his return appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra both in Cleveland and on tour including the orchestra's residency in Miami. He also leads the Australian premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's chamber opera Ainadamar at the Adelaide Festival. Additional engagements include appearances with the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Diego, among others, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela.
In June 2004, Mr. Guerrero was awarded the Helen M. Thompson Award by the American Symphony Orchestra League, which recognizes outstanding achievement among young conductors nationwide. Born in Nicaragua and raised in Costa Rica, Mr. Guerrero began his musical training in Costa Rica as a member of the Costa Rica Youth Symphony. He received his bachelor's degree from Baylor University in Texas and his master's degree in conducting from Northwestern University in Illinois. Mr. Guerrero's principal conducting teachers were Michael Haithcock, Stephen Heyde, Victor Yampolsky and Guillermo Scarabino. Prior to his tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra, he served as Music Director of the Tachira Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. Mr. Guerrero plans to reside in Nashville with his wife Shirley and daughters Virginia and Claudia.
Recognized as one of the nation's fastest growing orchestras, the 84-member Nashville Symphony gives more than 200 performances annually and is rapidly developing an international reputation for unique programming and high musical standards. The Symphony's award-winning recordings and focus on new American music, coupled with the high-profile opening of Schermerhorn Symphony Center, have thrust the Symphony into the national spotlight. The Nashville Symphony has 11 recordings on Naxos and one on Decca, making it currently one of the most active recording symphony orchestras in the country. The recordings have received four Grammy nominations, including one for "Best Classical Album" in 2004 for the works of Elliott Carter. In the 2007/08 season, the Symphony's American Encores series will include performances of seldom-heard works by Richard Danielpour, John Corigliano, Michael Torke, Robert Sierra, Paul Creston, Claude Baker, Paul Hindemith, Erich Korngold, Kurt Weill and Aaron Copland, among others.
Nashvillian immigrant to Nicaragua is held in murder case
Public outrage against foreigner threatens fairness of trial set for January 24
UPDATE 2/19/07: TRIAL COURT SAYS VOLZ IS GUILTY The Tennessean reports in this article that Nicaraguan authorities have charged Nashvillian Eric Volz with murder. He is being held in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua for a trial on January 27.
"A Nashville native whose father was a bassist for the once-popular Christian rock band the 77s is jailed in Nicaragua on charges that he and another man killed his former girlfriend, according to the Spanish-language newspaper El Nuevo Diario."
"Meanwhile, friends and family of Eric Volz are fighting a legal battle here, proclaiming his innocence and accusing the Nicaraguan government of falsely arresting him."
"Volz, son of musician Jan Eric Volz, is the editor of a Nicaraguan bilingual magazine, EP Magazine, according to the family's Web site, www.friendsofericvolz.com."
According to the family's site, "From a legal perspective, there is little doubt that Eric is getting disparate treatment and that there is serious prejudice against him because he is an American." The local Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario reports that Volz was nearly lynched when being moved from place to place by the authorities. El Nuevo Diario may even have taken an intentional jab at Uncle Sam with this mention on the front page of its web site of the U.S. census report painting U.S. residents as the most overweight in the world, setting records in the time we spend eating, drinking, and watching TV.
It is not difficult to imagine that the image of the American foreigner in Nicaragua has been tarnished by anti-immigrant or anti-American rhetoric in the wake of Volz's arrest. Anti-immigrant sentiment is also a concern in the U.S. criminal justice system, as reported previously by the Tennessean (story available on Google via this search). Middle Tennessee examples of American nativism in general were most recently catalogued in this cover story in the Nashville Scene. And the Nashville City Paper has reported extensively on high-profile crimes by illegal immigrants (one story here) and the various measures and other reactions that have resulted.
Unless he is found innocent in the upcoming murder trial on January 24, it may not be possible in the end to determine whether anti-immigrant or anti-American sentiment determines his fate.
update 1/24/07: The Nashville City Paper summarized the situation before the trial in this story.
update 2/9/07: The Nashville City Paper reports here that a new trial date has been set.
update 2/19/07: The Nashville City Paper reports here that Volz has been found guilty. The San Antonio Express-News has more detail in this article.
Lineberger thought she was prepared for the country’s living conditions, but found herself overwhelmed when she arrived at La Chureca. An estimated 1,500 people call the city dump home – more than half of them under the age of 18 – and are plagued by malnutrition, disease and heartbreak.
Fulton agrees that the students won’t be able to change the world but they will do what they can.
The Saturday, April 19, auction of items from the estate of Margaret Lindsley Warden features a portrait of once-famous Nashvillian William Walker.
