The Latin American Arts Festival (LatinFest) is a multidisciplinary celebration of music, art, film, dance, theater, literature and culture. Its mission is to promote artistic diversity, raise intercultural and intersectional awareness, expose social issues, and challenge stereotypes about Latinxs and Latin America in the school and community.
The LatinFest was born out of the need of representation and exposure of Latin American Art at CalArts and the community at large. This student-lead project was initiated by Diana Teixeira and Eloy Neira (Peru); Emilia Moscoso (Ecuador), Lucas Longaresi (Brazil); Vivian Naranjo (Chile), Leila Jay, Rafael Luna and Rosa Boshier (USA); and Pablo Leñero (Mexico).
The festival not only promotes traditional art forms, but also challenges them and exposes new ones. Organizers strive for the decolonization of the arts, the mind, and the body— questioning what it means to be Latinx while confronting embedded cultural issues such as machismo, xenophobia and aporophobia.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6TH
Did you know that Latin America is the land of the harp? Did you know that the official national dances” of Venezuela, Paraguay, and Chile are harp music? Did you know that ‘La Bamba’ is harp music from 18th century Veracruz, Mexico? Learn more about this beautiful style of music from acclaimed harpist Alfredo Rolando Ortiz.
Alfredo was born in Cuba. When he was eleven years old he immigrated with his family to Venezuela. Four years later he began studying the Venezuelan folk harp with his school friend Fernando Guerrero. A year later he became a pupil of Alberto Romero on the Paraguayan harp. Just two years after his first harp lesson, he began medical school at Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, began performing professionally, and recorded his first album. Music supported his medical studies until graduation. Five years later he moved to the United States to continue studies of music therapy. Two years later, he married Luz Marina Otero. For eight years from the time of his graduation from medical school, he worked in the medical field as well as a harpist and recording artist, until his wife became pregnant. In order to have time for his growing family, he then decided to dedicate his life only to them and to his first love: the harp.
With a multicultural repertoire that covers folk, classical and popular music from many countries, as well as his original compositions, Alfredo has performed for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. He has recorded many albums and is the winner of a gold record in South America. He has lectured on a variety of subjects at universities, colleges, and schools, is the author of several harp music books and articles, and his compositions have been performed and recorded by classical and folk harpists in many countries. His ‘Venezolana for Five Pedal Harps’ has become a favorite of harp ensembles around the world.
His acclaimed ‘South American Suite for Harp and Orchestra’ premiered March 3, 1996. Dr Ortiz was invited to perform his Suite at the World Harp Congress in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1999, with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, having as audience over one thousand classical harpists from around the world. He has also performed his Suite in Venezuela, Guatemala, Brazil, Turkey, New Zealand, and Israel, and with several orchestras in the United States, among them the New Mexico Symphony, Corona Symphony Orchestra, and the El Paso Symphony.
On July 22, 2008, during the Tenth World Harp Congress in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, his composition Cumbia Verde, created for four harps or harp ensemble, was premiered by 232 harpists, the largest harp ensemble to date.
PARAGUAYAN HARP COMPOSITION WORKSHOP
12:00pm – 1:00pm. B321.
All experience levels are welcome in this exploration of Latin American harp composition!
HARP MASTERCLASS
2:00pm – 3:00pm. B324.
Alfredo will be exploring special effects for harp as well as new and useful techniques. All levels are welcome, and it is not necessary to bring an instrument.
INJURY PREVENTION FOR ALL MUSICIANS
3:00pm – 4:00pm. B324.
With his vast musical experience and medical background, Alfredo shows musicians on all instruments how to take care of their bodies while playing, using the harp as an example.
PAN-AMERICAN HARP PERFORMANCE
4:30pm – 5:30pm. Wild Beast Concert Hall.
After all these workshops, enjoy listening to Alfredo perform his and other works.
GENERAL EVENTS
MANU BEKER (ACOUSTIC)
12:00pm – 1:00pm. Main Gallery.
A pop singer/songwriter with influences ranging from RnB to Bolero, the velvet-voiced Manu Beker will present an acoustic set of his music with a wide range of accompanying instruments. Beker is a young Mexican-born singer songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA, as well as Mexico City. At just the age of 22, Manu has already worked and collaborated with Grammy award-winning singers, musicians, and producers in order to compose, write, and perform his own material as well as other projects such as soundtracks and scores for film and TV. Also featuring Josh Buchignani, Mackynze Roten, Timothy Kontoff, Solomon Newbon, Emilia Desiré, and Noah Schwartz.
ERASING BORDERS (IN AN EMERGENCY)
LECTURE BY HARRY GAMBOA, JR., CALARTS FACULTY
5:00pm – 6:30pm. B312- Music School
Harry Gamboa, Jr. will discuss and show his photo-based performance work 1970’s – Present while contextualizing the role of borders, bridges, and the Los Angeles urbanscape. A dynamic CalArts faculty member of the photography and media program in the School of Art, Gamboa is an artist, writer, and educator, as well as the founder and director of the international performance troupe ‘Virtual Vérité’ (2005-2017). He is also a co-founder of ‘Asco‘ (1972-1985), the Los Angeles-based performance group.
AFRO-PERUVIAN CAJÓN WORKSHOP
5:00pm – 6:00pm. African Room / Little Ghana
Join guest artist Gino Gamboa and learn more about the Afro-Peruvian cajón! All experience levels are welcome and there is no need to bring an instrument.
Born in Lima, Peru and living in the US since the mid-’90s, Gino Gamboa is a master percussionist, teacher, and instrument maker, and a prime exponent of Afro-Peruvian music. He has toured and recorded with Eva Ayllon, Peru Negro, Tolu, and Los Hijos del Sol. His special focus is on teaching and fabricating the Peruvian cajón. Founder of the groups Armonia Criolla and Contrapunto and an integral member of Sajama, Gino was also a member of a Peruvian delegation that participated in the opening ceremonies of the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games. Since 2003 Gino has coordinated the annual ‘Concurso Internacional del Cajón.’ He continues to travel to different parts of the world offering clinics on cajón as well as presenting Peruvian music.
ROOM FOR SELF: SABINA ARIA’S GRADUATION RECITAL
8:00pm – 10:00pm. Roy O. Disney Concert Hall.
Description TBA.
ARGENTINIAN FILM NIGHT
7:00pm – 10:00pm. Room A115.
‘Te quiero tanto que no se’ (I Love You So Much That I Just Don’t Know), dir. Lautaro García Candela. 2018, 72 min.
‘Te quiero tanto que no se’ happens during a night in which someone finally decides to go looking for something to the outside, and that outside reshapes his time and his search into something that turns out to be a musical of old protest songs and ballads, sung by the very young.
‘La civilización esta haciendo masa y no deja oir’ (The Civilization is Making Noise and Does Not Let Hear), dir. Julio Ludueña. 1974, 95 min.
‘La civilización está haciendo masa y no deja oír’ (Julio Ludueña, 1974) is a satire about a group of women who decide to rebel their pimps, a satire that comes in a time when it could be guessed that tragedy was already there.
RECEPTION CONCERT: BANDA DO CABELO
10:00pm – 11:00pm. Roy O. Disney Concert Hall Lobby
The dynamic Banda do Cabelo performs traditional and modern choro music, a Brazilian musical genre born in Rio de Janeiro in the mid 19th century. They bring that musical language to other compositions, exploring improvisation, syncopation, melodic interpretations, and counterpoint. The choro group performs compositions by Jacob Do Bandolim and Pixinguinha, as well as original compositions. Featuring alumni and students Bradley Butterwoth (guitar), Emilia Desiré (percussion), Rafael Luna (flute), and Lucas Longaresi (guitar).
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