Artist Statement
Music is a powerful social force, capable of creating a synergy that makes people identify themselves as creative members of their own culture and helps them come together to create strong communities. From a very young age, when I started reading and learning about social movements in South America, for example, I realized that music was an essential engine for these revolutions and provided the motivation to fight for the things that people believed were right and necessary. After moving to Brazil, I had this feeling even stronger because Brazilian culture relates to music in a profound way. It is part of people's daily lives and generates support and relief for the community. This human relationship with music (melodies, poetry, speeches, and concepts) makes my hair stand on end, and that is where I find my inspiration to act, to compose based on facts, testimonies, feelings, and historical memories related to me. As a composer, I love writing music and experimenting with sound, rhythms, and melodies. This is one of the ways to express myself without limitations. Music is a place of freedom.
I enjoy trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone when it comes to composing. One of the most important works that I have developed during the last three years is the use of electronic/digital elements embedded in solo vibraphone work. This passion began when I restored my discontinued Deagan 515 electric vibraphone from 1965. Since then, I have dedicated myself to the research and experimentation on electroacoustic vibraphone and its possibilities: traditional and extended techniques, amplification, use of analog pedals, computer sound processing (Ableton Live), live electronics, and analog synthesizers.
This interest led me on a compositional journey, where I have written pieces for solo vibraphone including Caminando Entre Laderas (2019), Ciclon (2020), Convergencias Policromadas (2021), Snake Stone (2023), and one of my biggest projects Habitando-me (Inhabiting-me), a series of seven short pieces for vibraphone and electronics.
This series was challenging technically, and also conceptually, as it explores the issue of isolation during the pandemic, and reflects on how this crisis has taken us on a journey to (re)encounter ourselves in search of self-awareness. Each piece was thought of and metaphorically related to a part of the body.
In addition to my experimental compositions, I always seek to expand my knowledge of Latin American music, which has been a great influence on my artistic path as a performer-composer. I made it my priority to inspire the community to know and listen to this Latin American musical culture that is huge and rich, from Patagonia to the Caribbean. I have done extensive research on these cultures and have performed in various traditional ensembles such as Ecuadorian, Colombian, Afro-Peruvian, and Andean music, salsa bands, Uruguayan candombe drumming ensembles, and various Brazilian ensembles. I also started the Latin American Ensemble at CalArts, focusing mainly on South American music with new original arrangements.
Lately one of the topics of my interest is the use of new technologies as a way of reviving/recreating traditions. I analyzed new musical productions as modes of artistic expression in a broader interdisciplinary framework to better understand the cultural, sociopolitical, and historical processes of countercultural formation in Latin America that seek to question foreign influences and elitist cultural models. The theoretical foundations of decolonial aesthetics served as a framework to guide the analysis of my research, based on the works of Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano, and Francisco Ugalde, for example, as well as philosophical concepts such as the theory of the rhizome proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, including ideas of deterritorialization, recontextualizations, and post-geographical relocations in music.
I am also interested in musical and cultural production. I had the opportunity to work as an executive producer for CalArts LatinFest 2021 (online). Some of my tasks included grant writing, budgeting, and financial support, coordinating the production team, events, visiting artists, web development, and advertisements. Another great project that I am involved in is the A442 International Network of Vibraphonists and Marimbists, a remote project whose main objective is the distribution and expansion of the interpretations and resources of the drumstick instruments. I worked in the production of online workshops and the streaming concert series called Concierto en Casa carried out in these months of isolation. This semester I also have the opportunity to have a biweekly show on KCIA radio called LAtinFlavor