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The current artistic manager of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (OFJ), Horacio Cicero, has had a varied career, from an early connection with music to the administration of spaces in which performers, materials and handling also come into play. of resources whose purpose is to bring to fruition a show or public policy project, a complete range of work that has not yet been completed.

youth and music

In an interview with EL INFORMADOR, Cicero recalls that “I started studying piano at the age of 6 and, at the school where he studied, there were spaces for musical training, in choral or popular music groups. My parents, with great effort, bought me and a brother a piano, and many of my neighbors made music. That's why I think music was always part of my training, I had musician uncles and, I say it all the time, my mother lulled us to sleep with Radio UNAM”.

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Thus, the boy who liked musical orchestrations and arrangements in cartoons, “until when I left high school I entered the National School of Music to study Composition; In a short time, they invited me to be a copyist for the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), first to help in a ballet and, later, as a librarian for the National Symphony Orchestra, very young, and that was my school, because it allowed me learn to know the works”.

New insights

For 2005, the concert organizer OCESA -with Yordi Puig, director of Vive Latino- “starts a project to bring classical operas presented as mainstream shows, with everything that modernity has added to the stage; I joined the technical staff because someone who knew how to organize an orchestra was needed”, says the composer.

That was where, explains Cicero, "I became interested in lights, audio, lighting, and I began to participate as a production assistant in some OCESA shows and tours, including rock concerts at the Foro Sol or the Palacio de los Sports, with many artists. With that company I held many positions, but as a production assistant you train in administration (making itineraries, scheduling hotels, renting equipment, everything that is specified in a technical rider”.

Arrival at the pearl of Guadalajara

Thanks to those trips and numerous jobs in Guadalajara, they invited the musician to stay as head of the forum for the Telmex Auditorium, “that is, who is in charge of receiving the equipment, serving the technical staff; Thanks to this work, I got involved in the construction of the UdeG Performing Arts Ensemble (now Santander), at the invitation of María Luisa Meléndrez, and when I was appointed director, she took me there to 'attend' to the four (enviable) stages and the different productions”.

The previous year, after just over 20 years working on stage, "I appreciated that the job already demanded a lot from me," says Cicero, "and having put together a good (and young) technical team, I decided to separate from that job to attend to personal projects, because I haven't stopped composing, I do works for dance, videos, short films or whatever they ask for”.

The Informant / G. Gallo

And yet, in October of the previous year, he was invited by Lourdes González, head of the Secretary of Culture (SC) of Jalisco, “to collaborate with the restructuring of the OFJ, given my experience as artistic manager; It is a different challenge, but I think that throughout my work history I have learned about personnel management, in addition to seeking to 'fix' some things and make the work mechanisms established by regulations transparent. The challenge is to give meaning to the work, in accordance with what the statutes establish”.

The public and the personal

On the other hand, after “returning” to the public sector, Cicero acknowledges that in the field of culture “there are things that, despite changes in government, have not changed much, culture continues to be neglected; now, this invitation attracted me because the head of the SC is a person who does recognize the artistic community, her vision is modern and very strong, to attend to things as they should”.

In these terms, another challenge has been to face the needs posed by the health contingency derived from the pandemic; He assures the musician that "the truth is that we always heed the recommendations of the Health Board and hopefully the infections will decrease, so that the situation improves in all aspects."

Cicero is currently working on the music for a staging with large-format puppets, I'm still making short films with friends from Tijuana (three, during the pandemic); In addition, I try to stay active as a musician, because it is not easy, the discipline is jealous and, although my process is intuitive, I always keep in touch with my creative side, in personal projects that involve me as a musician or producer”.