Música Mestiza: A musical laboratory exploring the idea of “mestizaje.”
This article was originally featured in the Fall 2016 issue of Genderscapes, IRWG's annual newsletter.
In 2014, an IRWG Faculty Seed Grant supported a multi-disciplinary collaborative project titled Música Mestiza: A musical laboratory exploring the idea of “mestizaje.” Drawing inspiration from Peruvian folklorist and author José María Arguedas (1911-1969), who envisioned an idea of “mestizaje” (or, the mixing of ancestries) where cultures can coexist without one subjugating another, the musical laboratory of Música Mestiza, sought to create a newly imagined musical hybrid of two idioms: a classical western string quartet with traditional Andean instruments, sounds, and forms.
The project organizers, cellist Katri Ervamaa (Residential College) and composer Gabriela Lena Frank first met during their graduate work in U-M’s School of Music. Frank, whose background includes a mix of Peruvian, Chinese, and Lithuanian/Jewish descent, explores her multicultural heritage ardently through her compositions. As a graduate student, she was writing a string quartet when she had the opportunity to travel to Peru. Ervamaa recalls, “Gabby was very inspired by the sounds that she heard. She was writing a string quartet and wanted to use those sounds, so we did some workshopping...” which resulted in her very first piece with Andean idioms: her string quartet Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (2001). Ervamaa explains, “She used these different Andean sounds to create her own musical language.”
The friendship between the two women continued throughout the decade after graduate school. In 2013, Frank was working with the Orquesta de Instrumentos Andinos, a professional orchestra of indigenous instruments in Ecuador. While her 2001 string quartet incorporated Andean musical expressions, it was written to be played by Western instruments mimicking the sounds of traditional Andean instruments, such as panpipes and pan flutes. Over a Skype call, Frank and Ervamaa imagined the possibility of reworking Leyendas to incorporate Andean instruments alongside the traditional Western violins, cello, and viola, thus creating a new musical hybrid. Ervamaa likens the goals of this project to those of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. She explains, “There is such depth to Andean music, and also to this idea that you can legitimately merge two different idioms and create a third language. Our intent is not to steal from either tradition; our intent is to create art that is a third.” In short, a subjugation free relationship.
With support from 12 schools, colleges and units at the university, including the IRWG Faculty Seed Grant, Ervamaa and Frank were able to make the dream a reality. In Fall 2014, three Ecuadorian musicians, Franklin, Danilo and Lenin Vizuete, (panpipes and flutes) arrived in Ann Arbor for a week-long residency, along with a string quartet comprised of Ervamaa (cello), U-M Professor of Music Andrew Jennings (violin), Christina McGann (violin), and Charlton Lee (viola).
The residency consisted of intense daily rehearsals, social and educational activities, and a final public performance at the Stamps Auditorium in the Walgreen Drama Center. The rehearsal process was the first time Frank had musicians playing both the Western and indigenous instruments in the same room, so the arrangements had to be adjusted to weave the voices of the panpipes and the string instruments. After each rehearsal, Frank would go back to her hotel room to rewrite and rework the music, bringing new arrangements the next morning. After a week of working together, they were ready for the public performance, which Ervamaa describes as “a truly special concert experience.”
The residency and the public performance was filmed by an Indianapolis-based PBS film crew, led by Emmy award winning documentary maker Aric Hartwig. The resulting documentary, Mestiza Music, aired on Indianapolis’s local PBS station WFYI in April 2016, and was nominated for a Regional Emmy award. The film will air on PBS stations around the country beginning in summer 2016.
Ervamaa hopes that the PBS documentary and the success of the U-M residency will seed a true commission for Frank to write a “full-scale, original piece for this exact instrumentation.” A commission could mean a second residency for the ensemble, to workshop the new piece and potentially perform the world premiere.
Fans can follow the Mestiza Music Facebook page for updates about local broadcasts and news and watch the full documentary online at www.wfyi.org/programs/mestiza-music.
