The Society for Seventeenth-Century Music

The Society for Seventeenth-Century Music

Miami 2016: How Sweet It Is!

Hollywood BeachOur 24th annual meeting will take place April 14–17, 2016 in Miami, the centerpiece of a vast four-county metropolitan area bounded by the Palm Beaches to the north and extending all the way to Key West to the south, with Ft. Lauderdale, Coral Gables, and the Florida Keys in between. Hosted by the Florida International University College of Architecture + The Arts and School of Music in partnership with the Miami Bach Society, the conference will offer stimulating intellectual and musical experiences in an unparalleled setting. Florida International University (FIU), located in west Miami with satellite campuses throughout the region, is the nation’s fourth largest university. As Miami’s public research university, FIU serves a diverse population in a city where 60% of its citizens speak Spanish at home. Miami means “sweet water” in the local indigenous Indian language. While it is nicknamed the “Magic City” and the “Gateway to the Americas,” no ethnic group is more prominent than the Cuban community. Its center is along the famed Calle Ocho (8th Street) in Little Havana, where you can enjoy the typical Cuban rocket fuel espresso known to locals as “cafecito,” sample Cuban cuisine at beloved local restaurants such as the “Versailles Café,” and watch Cuban artisans roll cigars right in front of you. Closer to Havana than to Orlando, South Florida certainly earns its tongue-in-cheek moniker as Cuba’s 16th province.

The conference itself will take place in Coconut Grove, Miami’s oldest and most picturesque neighborhood, right on the bay with dozens of restaurants within a five-minute walk. It’s been referred to as “a blend of Greenwich Village, Caribbean port-of-call, and small European village situated in a tropical paradise,” where peacocks roam the streets as freely as do cats and dogs. It is the location of numerous film sets and TV shows such as Burn Notice; CSI: Miami; Glades; and (back in the day) Miami Vice. Coconut Grove is an easy shuttle or cab ride from Miami International Airport (MIA), and the weather in April is usually stupendous with low humidity and abundant sunshine. Our conference hotel is the Mutiny, a boutique hotel whose rooms are really studio apartments, many with ocean views. A lovely outdoor area includes a tropical pool, waterfalls, and the occasional parrot. Because hotel rooms are in such high demand in Miami, SSCM members must reserve their rooms by February 29 to receive the discounted rate of $179 per night; the non-conference rate per night is $300+! The Mutiny is a five-minute walk from the conference site, a local church complex where the paper sessions and concerts will take place.

Following our opening reception at the Mutiny pool area on Thursday, our first concert will celebrate Miami’s Spanish roots by featuring the world’s leading authority on vihuela, John Griffiths, who this past November was named AMS Corresponding Member from Australia. On Friday night we will be treated to the FIU Opera Theater and Collegium Musicum’s performance of John Blow’s short opera Venus & Adonis, leaving you plenty of time to sample Coconut Grove’s active nightlife. Both concerts are sponsored by FIU and the Miami Bach Society and are free to SSCM members. Saturday night’s banquet will be held around the corner in the quaint Peacock Garden Café that is sure to remind our Society’s esteemed president of the Coconut Grove he knew as a young man.

The nearby Vizcaya Museum and Gardens should be of particular interest to our members. It is an oceanside estate anchored by an Italian Renaissance style villa, built by the industrialist James Deering and adorned with luxurious decorative arts, fine paintings and tapestries, a music room, an organ room, an inner courtyard,and, outside, a lagoon with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European-style sculpted gardens. SSCM members receive discounted admission. For those who prefer to venture beyond Coconut Grove’s friendly confines, no place represents the vitality of Miami more than South Beach or SoBe, a 15 to 20 minute car, cab, or Uber ride away from the Grove. It is actually a barrier island with an enormous and inviting beach but is best known for its active nightlife and the celebrities who own homes either there or nearby. Lincoln Road is the cultural heart of South Beach, where Michael Tilson Thomas’s New World Symphony is housed in a theater designed by Frank Gehry. Nearby you can find numerous museums, including Wolfsonian-FIU on Washington Avenue with its unparalleled collection of Art Deco items from 1885–1945. Also close by is Española Way, a less glitzy but more evocative pedestrian mall than the very chic Lincoln Road, but also teaming with ethnic restaurants, including A La Folie, where you can enjoy genuine French cuisine en plein air at reasonable prices in an old European atmosphere. Detailed information regarding registration, housing, and travel will be available on the forthcoming conference website. And Away We Go!

– David  Dolata

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