Skip to content. Skip to navigation
College of Arts & Sciences
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Navigation

Festival celebrates Latin American music’s diversity

You are here: Home → Articles → March 2008 → Festival celebrates Latin American music’s diversity

The diversity of Latin American music will be the focus of the 2008 Festival on the Hill March 27-30 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

University scholars, musicians and local educators will explore Latin American music’s ongoing contributions to the music of the United States and its emerging impact on North Carolina’s cultural and social landscape in four days of concerts, panel discussions and workshops, all open to the public. Concert highlights include a premiere piece by Cuban composer Tania León and a performance by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

The music department in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences sponsors the biennial festival, with a different focus each time. The 2008 festival theme, “Transcending Borders: Latin American and Latina/o Music in North Carolina,” reflects the university’s efforts to reach out to diverse segments of the local community. Workshops on the music of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and the Caribbean will be led by local musicians who specialize in those styles. Musical performances range from salsa and Latin jazz to modern classical and Mexican Baroque music.

The festival is organized by David Garcia, UNC assistant professor of ethnomusicology and an expert on Latin American and Latina/o popular music.

“The festival’s emphasis on outreach to local communities, including Latinas and Latinos, is an extension at a much larger scale of what I’ve done in my classroom teaching,” Garcia said. Latina/os are the fastest growing segment of North Carolina’s population. As groups of people of Hispanic heritage from across Latin America and the U.S. migrate to the state, the diversity and culture of the state will continue to evolve.

For a detailed schedule of events, visit http://music.unc.edu/festivalonthehill2008/, or call the music department at (919) 962-1039. Many events are free, except where indicated. Note: Most events are on the UNC campus, but some events will be at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. The festival’s major sponsor is the N.C. Humanities Council.

Festival highlights include:

  • March 27, 3 p.m. Person Recital Hall. “Latino Music and Local Radio in the Triangle.” Free. Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South. Featuring panelists from local Latina/o music radio stations; moderated by Sharon Mujica, outreach director of UNC’s Institute for the Study of the Americas.
  • March 27, 7:30 p.m. Memorial Hall. “Modern Music of Latin America.” Tickets: $15, general admission ($10 UNC students, faculty and staff). For information and tickets: (919) 843-3333. A pre-concert public forum, “Latin American Composers in the United States,” will begin at 6:30 p.m. The concert will include a premiere piece by Cuban composer Tania León, featuring UNC faculty Terry Rhodes (soprano), Brooks de Wetter-Smith (flute), Donald Oehler (clarinet) and Matt Savage (djembe drum), plus mezzo soprano Ellen Williams. Concert also includes: the Carolina Wind Quintet; UNC music professor and pianist Mayron Tsong and cellist Nigel Boehm; the UNC Chamber Singers; the UNC Percussion Ensemble; and a chamber concerto for violin, strings and harpsichord by Paul Desenne, featuring violinists Jennifer Curtis and UNC music professor Richard Luby.
  • March 28, 8 p.m. Hill Hall. La Fontegara, Mexico’s foremost early music ensemble, presents a program of 17th and 18th century Baroque and early classical music from colonial Mexico, Central America and South America. $15 general admission ($10 UNC students, faculty and staff.) For information and tickets: (919) 962-1039. Part of the William S. Newman Artists Series, co-sponsored by Carolina Performing Arts. A pre-concert forum, “Transcontinental Exchanges in Music in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Europe and the Spanish New World,” will begin at 7 p.m.
  • March 29, 4:30 p.m. Person Recital Hall. Latin America strings concert. Free. Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Featuring: Charanga Carolina, directed by UNC music professor David Garcia; cellist and UNC music professor Brent Wissick; cellist Nigel Boehm; soprano and UNC music lecturer Jeanne Fischer; UNC music professor Richard Luby’s student quartet studio; and the Durham Academy Chamber Ensemble.
  • March 29, 8 p.m. Memorial Hall. Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. The Grammy Award-winning Blue Note recording artist presents a program of Afro-Cuban jazz. Tickets: $24-$50, $10 for UNC students. Part of the Carolina Performing Arts Series. For information and tickets: (919) 843-3333.
  • March 30, 5:30 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. Música Latina in Carolina featuring the group Rey Norteño. Free. Co-sponsored by UNC’s Latina/o Studies Program. The program includes performances by Holy Samba (samba music and dance), In the Pocket (Durham Academy), Durham Academy Salsa Club (salsa and chacha), Orquesta GarDel (salsa music and dance), Tangos para Recordar (tango music and dance) and Rey Norteño (music from northern Mexico.) 

 
College of Arts & Sciences