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Festival celebrates Latin American music's diversity E-mail
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The diversity of Latin American music will be the focus of concerts, dancing, discussions and workshops in the 2008 Festival on the Hill, March 27-30 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sounds of salsa, modern classical music and more will fill Hill and Person Recital halls at the University, as well as the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, where the dance floor will be open. Scholars, musicians and local educators will discuss Latin American music’s contributions to the music of the United States and its emerging impact on North Carolina’s cultural and social landscape.

With some events ticketed and some free to the public, the festival will include a premiere piece by Cuban composer Tania León and a concert by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba (pronounced “Gone-SAL-oh Roo-ball-CA-ba”) in Memorial Hall, presented also by Carolina Performing Arts. For a news release on the concert, visit http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/arts/one-of-the-greatest-in-jazz-coming-to-unc.html . For details and a list of all festival events, visit http://music.unc.edu/festivalonthehill2008/ .

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 community, said organizer David Garcia, UNC assistant professor of ethnomusicology and an expert on Latin American and Latina/o popular music.

“The festival’s emphasis is an extension at a much larger scale of what I’ve done in my classroom teaching,” he said. “Latinas and Latinos are the fastest growing segment of North Carolina’s population.”

Workshops on the music of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and the Caribbean will be led by local musicians who specialize in those styles. Musical performances will range from salsa and Latin jazz to modern classical and Mexican Baroque music.

The music department in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences sponsors the biennial festival, with a different focus each time. The N.C. Humanities Council is the major sponsor this year.

Besides the Rubalcaba concert, festival highlights will 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. 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, 6:30 p.m. forum, 7:30 p.m. concert, Memorial Hall. The forum, “Latin American Composers in the United States,” will precede the concert, “Modern Music of Latin America.” Tickets: $15, general admission; $10, UNC students, faculty and staff. For information and tickets, call (919) 843-3333. The concert will include the premiere of “Ancient,” by Cuban composer Tania León, featuring UNC faculty members Terry Rhodes (soprano), Brooks de Wetter-Smith (flute), Donald Oehler (clarinet) and Matt Savage (djembe drum), plus mezzo soprano Ellen Williams. Also performing: the Carolina Wind Quintet; UNC music professor and pianist Mayron Tsong and cellist Nigel Boehm; the UNC Chamber Singers; the UNC Percussion Ensemble; and violinists Jennifer Curtis and UNC music professor Richard Luby, featured in a chamber concerto by Paul Desenne for violin, strings and harpsichord.
  • March 28, 7 p.m. forum, 8 p.m. concert by La Fontegara, Mexico’s foremost early music ensemble, Hill Hall. For information and tickets – $15 general admission; $10, UNC students, faculty and staff – call (919) 962-1039. The forum topic will be “Transcontinental Exchanges in Music in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Europe and the Spanish New World.”  La Fontegara will perform 17th- and 18th-century baroque and early classical music from colonial Mexico, Central America and South America. Part of the William S. Newman Artists Series, co-sponsored by Carolina Performing Arts.
  • March 29, 4:30 p.m. Person Recital Hall. Latin America strings concert. Free. Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the concert will feature Charanga Carolina, directed by UNC music assistant professor David Garcia, an ensemble of UNC undergraduates and community musicians who perform the Cuban charanga style of music; 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, Free. Co-sponsored by UNC’s Latina/o Studies Program. The program will include 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.) The dance floor will be open.

Web site:  http://music.unc.edu/festivalonthehill2008/

Festival contacts: David Garcia, (919) 843-2093, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Chris Wells, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Music department contact: Glenn McDonald, (919) 962-1039, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it