By Peggy Sturdivant

There are magicians who gather at work on Monday nights in Ballard. Their magic includes focusing otherwise twitchy teenage boys on the conductor’s baton and music on stands in front of them. It has brought professional musicians to the upper floor of the Sunset Hill Community Association Clubhouse to play along with students at all levels.

The wizardry of the Halcyon School of Music in Ballard escalated on the Monday after Thanksgiving when the outer door opened and a man in dress shoes and long black coat made an entrance. The tenor had arrived, just two days after his statewide tour had culminated in a full house for his Encanto Concert at Benaroya Hall. For the next hour José Iñiguez patiently practiced four pieces, starting and stopping as the nascent Sunset Hill Chamber Orchestra tried different tempos.

What is brewing on these dark Monday nights? All will soon be revealed, plus surprises, on Monday, December 14, 2015 when spouses Paula Nava Madrigal and Teo Benson present a Posada Christmas Concert. Posada processions are a cultural tradition in many Latino-American countries, from mid-December leading up to Christmas Eve. Not just religious, the ceremonies fuse modern and ancient Spanish cultural traditions, such as making a piñata, sharing party favors and pastries, and in this case, culminating in a formal concert on December 14th at the Sunset Hill Clubhouse.

The concert will include traditional elements and interpretations of musical works in Spanish and English, an overture written by a Cuban composer and opportunities for the Seattle community to participate before and during the event. Yes, a Posada event in Ballard with Mexican singers, the tenor José Iñiguez and soprano Alma Rocio Jimenez.

How did we get so lucky? It’s a talented community. Teo Benson has lived and taught violin in Ballard for almost 15 years. Along with his wife Paula Nava Madrigal, a cellist and conductor who is a native of Guadalajara they operate the Halycon School of Music. Through the non-profit Young Strings Project Outreach they received funding from City of Seattle Arts & Culture Youth Arts Fund and D’Addario Foundation that has allowed them to continue their World Youth Orchestras through Fall 2015. Madrigal is conductor and musical director. Her husband, violinist Teo Benson, serves as concertmaster. Each World Youth Orchestra includes professional musicians as well. Here in Ballard, musicians such as longtime Suzuki teacher Celia Nix, “help out,” as she puts it.

Madrigal and Benson live a few blocks from Sunset Hill Community Association. “We walk by it every day,” Madrigal said. They decided to ask about using it for another youth orchestra location and the Sunset Hill Chamber Orchestra was welcomed by SHCA. Come fall they began working toward the Posada Concert. In January the Ballard Civic Orchestra will formally launch thanks to a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant from the City of Seattle. As with their other programs at Casa Latina and Seattle World School the grant will allow them to create a multi-generational, multi-ethnic community orchestra open to the public without charge, including rehearsals and instructional workshops. The fall workshops and Las Posadas event are funded by a grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture SmArt Ventures.

I’ve stopped by the clubhouse several Monday nights for the rehearsals. “Come again next week,” Madrigal said, “The tenor will be here.” Still I wasn’t prepared for what it was like when Iñiguez stood in front of the group with music on his iPad and then went to full voice on a Turandot aria. It reminded me how a sailboat soars when its mainsail is fully engaged. It was magic.

I learned later that one of the young orchestra members could barely sleep from excitement that night, belting out operatic-like sounds once home. José Iñiguez is one of only 3-4 Mexican tenors in the United States. He grew up in Mattawa, a small farming community in Eastern Washington yet his path as a musician has brought him to Benaroya, and now to the Sunset Hill Posada. “It comes down to the music,” he told me, “anything that gets people passionate and interested.” He praised Madrigal, noting her achievements as a Latina woman conductor. “Paula is obviously having an effect.”

Already the rehearsals have had an effect on me, reacquainting me with the power of live music and pure voice. I have come to look forward to sitting on the sidelines at Monday rehearsals, regaining the sense of meaning in holiday traditions of all cultures.

Paula Nava Madrigal won’t reveal all her plans for December 14th because she wants there to be surprises. For me every note of this new local chamber orchestra is a surprise, and a gift. So this I do know, on a dark Monday night in December Paula Nava Madrigal will lift her baton and Ballard will sing.

Sunset Hill String Orchestra Posada Concert at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 14, 2015 at Sunset Hill Community Association, 3003 NW 66th. Event free but donations will be accepted.