Friday November 9, 7:30pm
Tribute to Violeta Parra 

Matteo Ramon Arevalos – piano & percussion
Camilla Lopez – voice & percussion

Image by and courtesy of Mattia Morselli

Microscope is very happy to welcome Camilla Lopez and Matteo Ramon Arevalos for an evening in tribute to Chilean composer, singer, and social activist Violeta Parra (b. 1917, d. 1967).

The night features a 75-minute program of selections of music and songs by Parra that have been transcribed for voice, piano and percussion by the two artists who are based in Ravenna, Italy. Violeta Parra wrote numerous songs, often drawing from the Chilean folk tradition and known for, in Arevalos’ words, “their rough and simple character, soaked in melancholy, but at the same time infusing a great joy for life”. She was also one of the founders of the Nueva Canción (“New Song”) movement in Chile in the late 1950s — a genre of traditional music often tackling political and social issues — as well as an accomplished artist working with sculpture, painting, and tapestry.

Parra’s spiritual testament is summarized in her song Gracias a la vida (Thanks to Life), which was and remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history. The piece was composed and recorded in 1966, the year before she committed suicide. Below is a short section from the lyrics as translated into English:

Thanks to life, which has given me so much. / It gave me laughter and it gave me tears. / With them I distinguish happiness from pain. / The two elements that make up my song, / And your song, as well, which is the same song. / And everyone’s song, which is my own song.

General admission $8
Students and Members $6

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Matteo Ramon Arevalos approaches music at the age of six playing the drums. He took diploma in piano at the Conservatorio Bruno Maderna of Cesena subsequently he perfected himself with Rudolf Kehrer in Vienna and with Oxana Yablonskaya in New York. Publish for College Music Editions two of his compositions for piano: Vivo Marcia Fantasia (2002) and Nocturne 1996 (2006). Has collaborated from 2003 to 2006, as a pianist, with the theatre company Fanny & Alexander at the project Ada – Family Chronicle performing music by O. Messiaen, G. Ligeti and M. Feldman. In 2008 in a duo with the Nadia Ratsimandresy, he created a monographic project entitled Messiaen et autour de Messiaen on the occasion of the centenary birth of Olivier Messiaen, making the recording and the publication of the CD for label ReR Megacorp (UK). He collaborated with the director Elisabetta Sgarbi for the original soundtrack of her film La Stanza della Segnatura (2010). In 2011 he participated in the 54th Biennale Arte di Venezia with the artist Vanni Cuoghi. In 2013, in a duo with the ondist Bruno Perrault, he published his second CD for ondes martenot and piano entitled Sérimpie, also for label ReR Megacorp. He collaborates with the company Masque Teatro, Nerval Teatro and the Drammatico Vegetale, is currently engaged in concerts as a soloist, in a project of contemporary music for piano solo entitled Per Piano, music by Fausto Razzi (recently CD was published for ReR Megacorp) and in projects of his compositions for piano and video-prepared piano La Folia and Metamorphosis.

Camilla Lopez graduated as an actress in 2016 at the Accademia Teatrale Veneta, where she studied with various Italian and foreign teachers. Her path in the theater began already in 2004, with Italian companies Teatro delle Albe and Fanny & Alexander. In particular, with Ermanna Montanari, she follows a two-year course of training all female, together with the actresses of the Teatro delle Albe. From 2014 to 2017 she also follows a path linked to the comedy of art, participating in specialized seminars in Venice and Lucca. She founded the company Fuochi in 2009, with which she participated in the Festival of Santarcangelo (Santarcangelo41) in 2011, with the show Amabo Te. The last collaboration is with the company Drammatico Vegetale, with which she began a career path from 2017 and which continues today with the shows Sogni, Pinocchio through the mirror and Leo. A new project is currently underway with a group Tostacarusa on the novel The art of joy by the writer and actress Goliarda Sapienza. She started singing as a child and recently founded the duo for voice, piano and percussion with Matteo Ramon Arevalos.

Violeta Parra, (born Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval, on October 4, 1917, San Carlos, Chile — died February 5, 1967, Santiago, Chile), was a Chilean composer, folk singer, and social activist, best known as one of the founders of the politically inflected Nueva Canción (“New Song”) movement. In addition, she painted, wrote poetry, sculpted, and wove arpilleras (folk tapestries). Parra was born to a large, poor family in the small town of San Carlos in the southern province of Ñuble. Her father, a music teacher, taught all of his children how to sing and play various instruments, especially the guitar. She started writing songs at an early age, initially performing at bars, small ballrooms, and circuses. In 1952, encouraged by her brother poet Nicanor Parra, she travelled throughout Chile to record the breadth of Chilean folk music. Her exposure to that music served as her inspiration for Nueva Canción, and her work began to synthesize Chilean folk traditions and her growing concern for social conditions. Embracing a broad spectrum of musical styles, Nueva Canción stood as an emblem of the socially, economically, and politically marginalized peoples of Latin America and their struggle for social justice. In 1954, having been awarded what was referred to as the “Chilean Oscar” at the Caupolicán Theatre for her music, Parra was invited to Poland to play at a youth festival. She popularized her music as she travelled throughout the Soviet Union and Europe, and she finally settled in Paris for two years, where she recorded several albums. Parra’s stay was cut short by the sudden death of her youngest daughter, and she returned to Chile in 1956. She committed suicide at age 49 while living in a tent on the outskirts of Santiago.

Image courtesy of Matteo Ramon Arevalos and Camilla Lopez


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Microscope Gallery Event Series 2018 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).