The Birth of ALMA
Don Richmond
“Both my wife Teri and I were founding board members, and I do remember the exact night that ALMA was born. Two wonderful Taos artists, Stephanie Lee and Adrienne Braswell, were performing at Milagros, when Julie Mordecai was the manager. The artists were great — the “crowd” was not — I think there was Julie, maybe one other employee, Teri and I, and maybe two other people. Julie came up to Teri and I and said something like, “I’m so embarrassed at this turnout, we need to do something about this!” And before the night was over, mailing lists and campaigns and memberships and stuff had been discussed, and it all started happening within a few days.
I don’t recall all the details of how the name ALMA came up, but I remember talking about a recent trip Teri and I had been on to Ireland, and how I felt that Ireland’s place and function in the global body of humanity was to be a keeper of that amorphous thing called “soul”, as it is a very palpable thing there (or at least it was in 1999). And of course, “alma” means soul in Español, and conveniently works great for the handy acronym for Alamosa Live Music Association. And although Teri and I left the board at some juncture when it seemed like it was time to hand things over to the next bunch of folks showing up, ALMA remains very dear to our hearts, and we are glad to be lifetime members.”
Julie Mordecai
“These concerts were a collaboration, with Jill Gosar as well who had a record store next door, and Milagros which I was running at the time. We planned future discussion with Don Conoscenti and Ellis Paul via Don and Teri to learn more about how Club Passim was run in Boston as a model.”
Teri McCartney
“Hi All, just wanted to correct one thing. Don and I didn’t know Ellis or Don Con until they came to Alamosa. I think Michelle LeBlanc, maybe, had that connection. She was running Rainbow’s End at the time and had just been to Lyon’s Folk Festival. I think! It’s all very fuzzy and a long time ago.”
Al Kahn
What year was ALMA formed and by who?
1999, the main people were Julie Mordecai, Jill Gosar and Don Richmond.
What’s a little history of the early days of ALMA?
ALMA originally got its 501c3 under La Puente. The concerts were held primarily at Cafe Maya which was later sold to La Puente and became Milagros. Concerts were usually one per month, sometimes more. We did charge for admission. Later, many concerts were held at Leon Hall. Don Richmond, Creede D’Avancar and others such as Frank Scott often donated backup for visiting musicians. Alamosa purchased a new portable stage named after Don Richmond and the city manager, Mike Hackett, asked ALMA to start concerts in the park in the early 2000’s.
How long have you been a member?
I joined ALMA in 2002 and became treasurer and the records improved. We joined the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance to get our 501c3 after realizing I was incapable of filling out the 35 page IRS form to get our own 501c3.
What are some highlights of ALMA over the years?
There were two concerts that actually made money. We booked Lila Downs. Shortly after, she hit the big time. She called and asked for more money. Julie told her she had a contract so she performed as required and was terrific. Richardson sold out.
[We] took a big risk and booked Michael Martin Murphy for his Christmas Show for $12K. The concert was in Central auditorium in Monte Vista because it was the largest auditorium in the valley seating about 800. It sold out and we made over $1000.
We had several well known artists such as Tommy Emmanuel and George Winston more than once. We hosted the Colorado Symphony orchestra twice. The first time was at the high school gym. It was so hot that Jeffrey Kahane, the conductor, allowed the musicians to play in their shirt sleeves. The second time, the high school janitor refused to cooperate so we held the concert at the ASC (not ASU at the time) theatre. We had the largest rain storm in living memory. The orchestra bus could not get all the way to the theatre. The musicians had to wade through the water with their instruments.