The Monadnock Center for History and Culture presents “Weaving Music Threads: A Hispanic Celebration” with Rumbarroco on Friday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m. at Bass Hall.
“We draw from Renaissance Baroque Spanish and Portuguese music,” said Laury Gutiérrez, founder of the Boston-based ensemble. “Every time we perform, it is a testament to the enduring vibration pulse of South American culture; it’s the tradition of three continents–Europe, South America, and Africa–woven into one stunning and harmonious tapestry of sound.”
Gutiérrez, a resident scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, founded the ensemble partly after taking a DNA test and learning more about her heritage.
“I’m from Venezuela, but when I realized, in 2014, that I would not be going back there to live, I took a DNA test,” Gutiérrez said. “The realization that I have the blood of three continents in me—South America, Africa and Europe—combined with the fact that I really love Spanish music, I really love Latin American music, all of that contributed for me to come up with this concept of Rumbarroco.”
The mission of Rumbarroco is “to unite diverse communities by highlighting the confluence and fusion of American, European, and Africa.”
Most of the music Rumabarocco performs is based on “Cancioneros,” or historic songbooks of music which have been performed in Spain and Portugal since the Renaissance.
“These are songs that were copied down for one reason or another. We have the originals, and we perform from those codices of older songs,” Gutiérrez said. “We play an early music piece, and we sing it, and we think, what does it evoke? What does it remind us of? How do we connect with it?”
According to Gutiérrez, some of the songs carried down through the ages are still popular today.
“A few of the pieces are villancicos, which are traditional Spanish carols, but also have some humor,” Gutiérrez said. “We have songs everyone may know, songs that are familiar, that everyone will want to join in. We always invite the audience to participate in our performances.”
Gutiérrez feels strongly that particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic, live performance is vital to community.
“Live music has a deeply human and positive psychological impact. It’s blending enjoyment with social connection, and this contributes to well-being,” she said. “Being at a live performance is an energy you cannot really replicate or evoke with TV, or with recordings. It is about the bond that you create with your audience. That moment when you smile with the audience—that unspoken bond is the connection.”
Rumbarroco includes Gutiérrez, Adriana Ruiz, soprano; Daniela Tosic, mezzosoprano; Fausto Miro, tenor; Katherine Shao, keyboards; Danila Bonina, violin; Eduardo Betencourt, harp; and Miguel Morales Lavado, percussion.
Gutiérrez grew up in a musical family in Venezuela, learning to play the guitar, the cuatro (a small guitar), and mandolin, and playing in the local folkloric orchestra. Later, she “fell in love” with the viola de gamba, which she plays in Rumbarroco.
Gutiérrez specializes in music by women composers and early Ibero-American music. She says while studying historic Latin music she found influences and themes that cross the continents. She is also the founder of La Donna Musicale, an ensemble which specializes in early music by women composers and has released four CDs.
“Looking at European music, it turns out that those same chord progressions you can find them here in Latin America. Not only in the past, in the Renaissance and Baroque, but currently, in folk music and popular music,” she said. “The same rhythms are there all through the ages. You can trace the influences all the way back and see how one culture has influenced another.”
Gutiérrez is excited to be bringing the group to New Hampshire.
“It will be our first concert here and it is really to going to be fun. It will be an experience which is not the usual for New Hampshire,” she said. “One week before Thanksgiving, people are feeling stressed out, so we are thinking, come to the Monadnock Center, which is such a beautiful museum, and enjoy this live music performance.”
Tickets and information are available at monadnockcenter.org/event/music-in-bass-hall-rumbarroco-latin-baroque-fusion/.
For information about Rumbarocco go to rumbarroco.org/. For a complete schedule of events sponsored by the Monadnock Center for History and Culture go to monadnockcenter.org/.