Location
Diamond 344
Start Date
1-5-2014 9:00 AM
End Date
1-5-2014 12:00 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
The soundscape of Colby College ranges from classical music ensembles, curated by faculty, to student-led official a-capella groups, and to quite informal bands that emerge and dissolve spontaneously as some students graduate or go abroad and others come. This makes Colby campus quite a democratic and supportive space to try out ones musical talents. Not being one of most diverse campuses in the country, Colby still has a significant international community and students from all over the Americas, and aims to be a place where many backgrounds and heritages meet and mix. This ethnic and musical diversity raises a question of how cultural backgrounds and heritages of Colby musicians may inform their music, and how, in turn, their music inform their identity. In this study we explore this topic in the performance of two idiosyncratic South-American musicians, Renzo Moyano and Guillermo Sapaj, who have just started performing for Colby audience this year. We seek to discover why do they play what they play at Colby - and what do they actually play, in the first place? By conducting extensive interviews with them and listening to the music, we examine the values, intentions and meanings behind their improvisation. Although these vary between the two, the value that both Renzo and Guillermo share is to open the musical space of Colby to something new and other, with them presenting themselves in a vulnerable and challenging position of the cultural Other.
Faculty Sponsor
Natasha Zelensky
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Music Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Humanities
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
643
MU262 Where La Onda Takes Us: Personal And Political in the Music of the Pacha Duo
Diamond 344
The soundscape of Colby College ranges from classical music ensembles, curated by faculty, to student-led official a-capella groups, and to quite informal bands that emerge and dissolve spontaneously as some students graduate or go abroad and others come. This makes Colby campus quite a democratic and supportive space to try out ones musical talents. Not being one of most diverse campuses in the country, Colby still has a significant international community and students from all over the Americas, and aims to be a place where many backgrounds and heritages meet and mix. This ethnic and musical diversity raises a question of how cultural backgrounds and heritages of Colby musicians may inform their music, and how, in turn, their music inform their identity. In this study we explore this topic in the performance of two idiosyncratic South-American musicians, Renzo Moyano and Guillermo Sapaj, who have just started performing for Colby audience this year. We seek to discover why do they play what they play at Colby - and what do they actually play, in the first place? By conducting extensive interviews with them and listening to the music, we examine the values, intentions and meanings behind their improvisation. Although these vary between the two, the value that both Renzo and Guillermo share is to open the musical space of Colby to something new and other, with them presenting themselves in a vulnerable and challenging position of the cultural Other.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2014/program/36