The Latin American Music Center will present a five-day spring music festival beginning April 13. The festival will feature student groups, Jacobs School of Music ensembles and guest performers and educators. All events except the Sergio Ospina Trio event are free.
“The cool thing about being able to lump all of this as part of one big festival is to show how many of these things interconnect with one another, and how many options and offerings are on campus having to do with Latin music,” Javier León, director of the Latin American Music Center, said.
The first event will feature the Sergio Ospina Trio at 7 and 8:30 p.m. on April 13 at the Blockhouse Bar. There will be a $10 cover charge. The Latin jazz trio includes IU professor of musicology Sergio Ospina-Romero.
On April 14, guest artist Nadia Calmet will teach an Afro-Peruvian dance workshop from 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Room 151 of the School of Public Health. León said Calmet, a friend from past research, had plans to be in the area and reached out to ask if there was interest in a workshop. León said he hopes if there’s interest in what Calmet does, this event can lead to a longer-term collaboration in the future.
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Two different music groups will perform on April 15. Mariachi Perla del Medio Oeste, an IU mariachi group that’s part of the LAMC, the Ethnomusicology department and La Casa Latino Cultural Center, will perform at 5:15 p.m. on the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies South Lawn.
Later that night, a Latin American Ensemble performance will be held at 8 p.m. in Auer Hall. The Afro-Cuban Folkloric Ensemble and Steelpan Ensemble will be directed by Joe Galvin, visiting lecturer in music.
On April 16, the night will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Room MC066 at the Musical Arts Center with a film preview, conversation and participatory concert event. A collaboration with the Colombian Association at IU, the event will preview “Nowhere to Fall,” a documentary about three Colombian women, their lives and an ancestral Colombian music tradition called Bullerengue. After the preview, the audience can interact with drummers and one of the singers from the film to make Bullerengue themselves.
At 8 p.m., IU professor of music Joe Gramley will direct the Brazilian Ensemble. This event will take place in Room MC070 at the MAC.
The festival will resume April 18. There will be a second Latin American Ensemble performance, this time featuring La Orquesta Escuela Vieja with guest Banda Panamericana, at 7 p.m. in the MAC lobby.
The final performance of the festival will be a Latin Jazz Ensemble directed by Wayne Wallace with percussion coaching by Joe Galvin. The event will take place at 8 p.m. in the MAC and will also be streamed online at IUMusicLive!
