An Unmissable Piano Concert Inside a Tulum Cenote by a Bellas Artes Concert Pianist

On Friday, November 20, a concert pianist from Mexico's Bellas Artes roster will perform in the private cenote at Naum, and the cenote concert in Tulum is open to anyone with a ticket.

The pianist is Erik Cortés Alcántara, a member of the Concertistas de Bellas Artes and a Yamaha Artist whose recent recitals have filled two of Mexico City's most demanding halls. The setting is Naum Tulum, a jungle property on the Tulum-Cobá highway that usually closes its gates to everyone except a single private client at a time.

For one evening, billed as the Naum Community Night, that changes. The property is inviting residents and visitors to a night of piano music, dinner, and dancing around its natural cenote.

From UNAM practice rooms to the Manhattan School of Music

Cortés Alcántara built his career on two tracks that rarely meet. He graduated in piano from the Facultad de Música of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and in parallel earned a bachelor's degree in jazz, with a piano specialty, at the Escuela Superior de Música of Mexico's national fine arts institute, INBAL.

A grant from FONCA, Mexico's national fund for culture and the arts, supported his studies abroad. In 2010, he completed a Master of Music at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.

He has since received distinctions in national and international piano competitions and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across Mexico, as well as in chamber ensembles and solo recitals. He also teaches. At UNAM's Faculty of Music, he teaches piano and chamber music, and the university's festival program lists him as a professor at Centro Escolar Cedros and Universidad Panamericana.

Critic Lázaro Azar, writing in El Universal, has noted that he has taken on cycles as formidable as Liszt's 12 Transcendental Études.

A Chopin program that sold out Bellas Artes

Chopin sits at the center of his recent work. In April 2024, he gave a recital at UNAM's Sala Xochipilli marking 175 years since the composer's death.

This year he took a full program of Chopin's four ballades and four scherzos to the VIII International Piano Festival at UNAM, performing it on January 24 at Sala Carlos Chávez. Two months later, he brought the same repertoire to the Sala Manuel M. Ponce inside the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and Mexico's Culture Ministry reported that the March 29 recital had sold out before the doors opened.

The program for the Tulum performance has not been published. What is certain is that the music will be heard far from a concert hall, in a space shaped by rock, water, and jungle.

Naum Tulum and its private jungle cenote

Naum describes itself as a private jungle property with its own cenote. Its business model is exclusive by design: the whole site is rented to one client at a time, for destination weddings, wellness retreats, private dinners, creative productions, and group stays. Its homepage tagline reads "Where Time Slows Down."

That exclusivity is what makes the Community Night unusual. Most people in Tulum have never had a reason to pass through Naum's entrance on the Cobá road.

Cenotes carry deep meaning on the Yucatán Peninsula. The ancient Maya regarded these sinkholes, the only natural sources of fresh water across much of the region, as sacred sites and openings to the underworld. A piano recital in one connects a classical tradition from 19th-century Europe with a landscape far older than both.

How the cenote concert in Tulum unfolds, hour by hour

The evening runs in three parts, according to the event listing on Ticket Tailor:

• 7 PM. Welcome, with snacks and drinks, and time to settle in.
• 8 PM. Piano concert in the cenote by Erik Cortés Alcántara.
• 9:30 PM. Dinner and drinks, followed by music and dancing.

The structure follows the format printed on the event poster: concert first, then dinner and drinks.

Why Naum asks first-time guests to call ahead

Naum is located on the Carretera Tulum-Cobá, Manzana K8, postal code 77797. The organizers are explicit on one point. Google Maps will not lead visitors to the right entrance, so anyone who has never been to the property should request directions before setting out by calling or messaging +52 984 253 4115.

Guests who prefer not to drive can book a seat on the event shuttle. It departs from World by Hand in Tulum at 6:30 PM and leaves Naum for the return trip between 11 and 11:30 PM.

Tickets are sold through Ticket Tailor in three categories: a Locals ticket for residents, a Visitors ticket for non-residents, and a separate Transport ticket for the shuttle. More about the venue is available at naumtulum.com, and the pianist shares his work on Instagram.

The shuttle pulls away from World by Hand at 6:30 PM on Friday, November 20. Ninety minutes later, the first notes will sound over the water.

Would you trade a concert hall for a cenote to hear classical piano in Tulum? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.