To recognize the strength, resilience, and contributions of Indigenous women to society, the Tgo Collective and the Ensemble Centro de Experimentación y Producción de Música Contemporánea (Cepromusic) are preparing the Experimental Music in the Women of Oaxaca concert, to be held on Saturday, September 5, in the Main Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts, in Mexico City.
The stage production will showcase various instrumental techniques, oral tradition repertoires, and soundscapes and cultural landscapes present in the daily lives of Oaxaca’s communities.
Ethnomusicology and safeguarding Oaxaca’s oral tradition
The Collective, made up of six violinists from the Sierra Juárez and Mixteca regions, who are part of the Automodelo program for oral tradition music in Oaxaca, created by Ignacio Toscano (1950–2020) and Francisco Toledo (1940–2019), will be under the direction of Patricia García, Oaxaca’s first ethnomusicologist.
The Collective has spent a decade continuing and safeguarding the oral musical traditions of the communities.
World premieres, tonal languages, and backstrap looms on stage
Under the artistic direction of Patricia García, Rubén Luengas, and José Luis Castillo, the Experimental Music in the Women of Oaxaca concert will include the pieces Tres sones de Danza de Malinches mixe, performed by Denny Flor Tomás Rodríguez (Mixe violinist), with percussion by the ensemble; Yaa Kusún Kuatyi, a Mixtec lullaby for putting a child to sleep, featuring the voice of Mixtec soprano Edith Ortiz; and the world premiere of Tu’unì (Sacred Word), a work by Rubén Luengas for a tonal-language speaker and ensemble.
It will also feature Cuerpo Telar, by Mauricio Rodríguez, a piece that incorporates a backstrap loom, stones, woven mats, and other elements as instruments, concluding with TGO, a work by Rubén Luengas that evokes the history of the Mixtec violinist, narrated and dramatized by actress Mónica del Carmen.
Source: excelsior
