Tuesday, August 20, 2013
HOME!
After another long bus ride, this time from Monte Caseros, we arrived safely in Buenas Aires last night about 3 am. We are now heading out for a
last few hours of shopping for presents to bring home to family and
friends. See you all at the Boston airport!
Monte Caseros Encuentra Coral International
BCS Argentina
Monte Caseros
Encuentro Coral
International de Ninos y Jovenes
August 17-19
2013
Music and
oranges are everywhere in Monte Caseros. Streets teem with choruses from
throughout the region; choral songs pour out into public courtyards where the
choruses are rehearsing; and townspeople hum the songs they are hearing
throughout their small town of just 7000 people. The many hand-made banners
that flutter across dirt streets and that mark rehearsal and performance spaces
show that this Encuentro Coral International is a bit like bringing the
Olympics to town. The whole town turns out in support, often armed with boxes
of mandarins as gifts to share with the choruses.
The festival
director Paula Eberhart, an American who is married to a local rancher,
enthusiastically greeted us the first night of our arrival with news of the
festival and boxes of sweet local mandarins. She told us that the festival is
usually held in October, when the weather is warmer and the regional choirs are
more fully rehearsed, but well after the local orange season. With news of our
trip, however, she moved the date two months earlier to coincide with our
visit. The bonus effect of that shift in date is the mandarins, which tumble
from trees in a profusion of orange balls. “You are so lucky to be here at this
time of year! It is our citrus season and you are about to taste some of the
best in the world.” As we bit into one mandarin after another, we knew that she
was right. Florida should watch out for the Corrientes growing region of
Argentina.
Across the sunny
flats of Corrientes province, the agricultural epicenter of Argentina, local
schools and community choruses look forward to the Encuentro Coral. These
children of farmers, ranchers, agricultural distributors, and government
workers, come to the festival annually to share their music and techniques and
to learn from each other and from a featured conductor. Money is tight in Argentina and inflation is
rampant. Choruses scrape money together little by little throughout the year to
join this big sing. With the shift in date from October to August, some
regional choruses were unable to join, not having enough time to finish
fundraising for their travel. The choruses that could fund the trip doubled
their rehearsals to be well enough prepared to show their repertoires off to Pablo
di Mauro, a celebrated choral director from Buenas Aires, who joined the
festival as the featured conductor. He, too, said that he shifted his schedule specifically
to join the festival three months earlier than he had originally planned. The
XVII annual Encuentro Coral was not to be missed.
Local families also shifted their daily schedules
to welcome our singers. Festival director Paula Eberhart leveraged her
connections throughout the town to match small groups of singers with local
English teachers and chorus members, allowing our singers to learn the rhythms
of daily life in this small town of about 7000 people. Walker, Josh, and
Patrick stayed with the Piloni family, who raise cattle and grown citrus on
their extensive estancia. Their farm dates back to their Italian ancestor who
came to Argentina over a century ago when land was cheap and immigrants with
grit and farming know-how could carve out prosperous new lives. Today, the
family sells their citrus abroad, coincidentally exporting it as far away as
Italy. Their kitchen is piled high with crates of mandarins—so delicious,
Patrick says, that "you beg for another!" Each morning, they squeeze
the mandarins into fresh orange juice and serve it with farm fresh eggs,
purchased from their neighbor. After breakfast, each family drops their singers
off at the central rehearsal space, where the chatter of teens comparing notes
on their wonderful families overtakes yawns from late nights. For every singer
the warm hospitality of “Mi casa es su casa” made the homestays four of the
best nights we have spent in Argentina.
The music of the Encuentro Coral is also filled
with the warmth of people who are friends first and singers second. Although
nearly every moment of the day was occupied with one kind of workshop or
rehearsal, singers stumbled through conversations in “Spanglish” to build
strong friendships with the Corrientes singers. Conductor Pablo di Mauro worked
with all the groups to help them extend their repertoires, including the
American spiritual “He Hasn’t Failed Me” and a moving rendition of “Gloria.” In
concluding performances on both Saturday and Sunday nights, all ten of the
choruses crowded together shoulder to shoulder on the stage for thrilling
performances of these songs under Pablo’s direction. The whole town had turned
out for the concerts and was swept away in the thrill of well over a hundred
voices in harmonious song.
The festival ended late on Monday with final
communal concert at the local hot springs.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
"Bring me Little Water, Sylvie" video clip
Our resident composer, videographer, accompanist, and all-star artist Tal Zilber is making a video of our musical adventures in Argentina. Here is a preview from the video of "Bring me Little Water, Sylvie": https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0#my-drive
Feel free to share the clip with friends and family!
Feel free to share the clip with friends and family!
Friday, August 16, 2013
Iguazu Falls
BCS
Argentina
Iguazu Falls
Wednesday,
August 14, 2013
Twenty-five hours on the bus may seem like a very long time, especially when a cold is incubating among your fellow travelers, but the cramped, steamy quarters quickly evaporated from our memories with the arrival in Iguazu. There, host families awaited eager to tell us about the wonders of their home town. Just outside the town, a rainforest preserve guards one of the Seven Wonders of the World, where magnificent falls cascade from majestic heights, joining three rivers and three countries in a spectacle so vast no camera can do it justice.
While the town itself revolves primarily around the
ebbs and flows of tourism, el Parque
de Iguazu moves to the rhythms of nature. Our walk through the preserve
revealed not just the magnificence of the falls but also the life of the
rainforest. Tourists follow an elaborate network of wrought iron suspension
bridges through the rainforest and over the calmer waters of the falls to
lookout points that bring the power of the place to life. As we meander along
the path, we notice first the wildlife that fearlessly follows humans. Yellow-breasted
birds with black masks boldly alight on tourists’ fingers in search of
empanada crumbs. Families of coatis, a cousin to the raccoon, meander among the
tables of the snack stands sniffing out cookies inside our backpacks. Then
there is the wildlife that co-exists, seemingly oblivious to human presence. Long-legged
pipers stalk the grass and beach areas in search of insects, reminding Josh of
Cape Cod sandpipers. Cormorants preen themselves in the sun on the rocks that
extend beneath the iron suspension walkways that lead us through the rainforest.
Swallows build nests in the support rods of the path beneath our feet. And we
look out on the Swifts, little birds that flit like sprites in and out of the
waterfalls to their nests on the rocks within. They part the rapidly flowing
water as if it were nothing more than a curtain in their doorway. The ranger
tells us that deeper in the forest are also toucans, parrots, monkeys, colorful
snakes, ocelots, and occasional jaguars.
The water itself is high now, filling out the full
array of falls across the canyons. A rainy winter means that the island beach
at the center of the canyon is closed to tourists, its beaches immersed under
an additional seven meters of water from the Iguazu and Parana rivers. The rain,
though, also reveals the falls to us in their fullest glory. Our tour guide
tells us that most visitors see only the most dramatic of the falls because the
rivers seldom flow with such torrential force to fill out the full crown.
As we emerge from our jungle walk, we see first the
vapor of the falls at Devil’s Throat, where the water falls at up to 10,000
cubic meters per minute, making it the most well-known of all the Iguazu
waterfalls. This is the sacred falls where the Guarani Indians believed that god
and the devil battled for souls. Those who lived in perfect unity with nature
could safely navigate the upper shores of the falls; those who violated the
principles of harmony would plummet to their deaths, pulled down by the
inexorable force of the “devil’s throat.” Guarani legend also describes the jealous rage of a god
whose bride, NaipÃ, fled with her mortal
lover Tarobá in a canoe across the river. The god sliced the river in two, creating the
waterfalls but condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. With those stories
still resonating for us, the falls were suddenly upon us. The metal suspension
path came to a sudden stop at an overlook that had each of us certain we had
come upon not heaven exactly but that perfect Facebook photo that your friends
will never believe. A rainbow glistened through the mist as the clouds parted
for the first sunshine of the day. Jane remarked simply that rainbows and blue
skies always follow BCS.
Leaving Devil’s Throat, we headed around the crown
of the waterfall to see several other falls—just a few of the 275 discrete
falls within the Iguazu necklace. Ferns burst across our path and vines wrapped
themselves around the hand railings along the suspension trail, a profusion of
green that prevented us from seeing more than a few feet into the rainforest beyond
the path. The panorama of one waterfall after another broke our sense of
enclosure and still more rainbows offered more opportunities for singers to
proclaim, “the best Facebook photo ever!”
For Tal Zilber, BCS’s extremely talented composer
and accompanist, those Facebook moments were also opportunities to assemble the
chorus into rousing renditions of “Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie.” Tourists
stopped to listen as we sang loudly over the white noise of the falls, with Tal
capturing the moment for a DVD he is preparing for our singers at the end of
the trip. I heard one tourist exclaim to his group how lucky they were to
witness this impromptu concert in such a beautiful place. He was not the only
one. I imagine that many of these tourists posted their lucky encounters with
our singers at Iguazu Falls to their own Facebook pages, spreading the song of
“Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie” worldwide.
For the smallest sample of Iguazu Falls, try to
imagine the photos in our Shutterfly album full scale, embracing your entire
horizon. Then you’ll begin to feel the wonder of this place.
Shutterfly link:
Devil’s ThroatNatalie, Jennifer, and Guiverlly at Iguazu
Miren and Flora on Homestays
Miren and Flora on Homestays
Iguazu and Monte Caseros
August 14, 2013
In Iguazu and again in Monte
Caseros, singers are staying with local families whose children are in the
choruses that we perform with. Our singers are housed with families in groups
of two, three, or four, depending on how many the family is able to
accommodate. Everyone agrees that their homestays are some of the best
experiences of the trip.
In Iguazu, Miren talked about how she bonded with her family:
In Iguazu, Miren talked about how she bonded with her family:
"The little girl Katty and her mom
were super nice. Even though they didn’t speak much English, they made us feel
at home. Their house is a very homey place with lots of art on the walls. (The
mother is an artist.) They said that they were going to move soon to another
neighborhood, though, because they have been robbed a couple of times. My
favorite part of staying there was playing with the animals. They have four
cats (mostly kittens) and one dog. They served us a simple, but delicious, dinner
of toast with cheese and ham. When we left, they made us promise to bring our
families and come visit them again."
In this photo, Miren is sampling the traditional drink Yerba Mate for the first time. She pronounced it "grassy but tasty."
In this photo, Miren is sampling the traditional drink Yerba Mate for the first time. She pronounced it "grassy but tasty."
Flora agreed that it was fun to
connect with the ten-old-boy in her homestay family. She said that even though
he spoke no English, he would copy their English and gestures and follow them
around the house. The next day when she and her roommate singers went shopping
in the tourist boutiques in downtown Iguazu, he saw them from across the
street. He came running over with his “girlfriend” to introduce her to them,
eager to show off his new American friends.
In most instances the families
who have hosted us have made a real effort to connect with us across the
language barrier. We are bringing home irreplaceable experiences of living – if
only for a few days – with local families who love music as much as we do.
Julia Ellis: Museo de la Memoria y "Como la cigarra"
Julia Ellis
Museo de la
Memoria
August 13,
2013
In Rosario, we visited the Museo de la Memoria (“Museum
of Memory”). The museum is open to the public as a place to comprehend a time
of extreme disregard of habeas corpus and persecution in the Dirty War, beginning
with the presidency of Isabel Peron, from 1976 to 1983. Its power directly impacted
even the lives of our tour guides, Daniel Viggiani and Susana Neira.
The city council democratically voted to create the
museum just 15 years ago, designating its location in the very building that
served as the headquarters for the military that plotted widespread Argentine political
persecution. The goal of the museum is to educate people about human rights and
the abuses of a terrible era in Argentinian political history. The central jail
has been renovated now to serve as a government training center and a venue for
democratic activities. We could see election leaders training poll workers that
day for Sunday’s provincial elections. (Note: The national election resulted in
President Cristina Fernandez’s government losing significant ground to opposing
parties. See Euronews
report.)
As we peered through the bars of former prison
cells, we were met with the stark realization of the building’s irony. Built to
house a police force to defend the people, the building became a place of
national terror. The ceilings dangled with the library cards of people who had
simply vanished. The tables where military personnel had once processed
prisoners were covered with historical essays about the times in which the
human soul has been compromised for power. The orange stucco walls both inside
and outside of the building were covered in expressive art, graffiti, and
colorful murals in memory of those who were lost. Ironically, the central plaza
within the building now serves as a skate park, a public amenity. Everything
about the building and plaza forms a statement on the importance of political
memory and democratic institutions.
The museum also serves as a leitmotif for the
concept of using art as a coping device. If nothing else, this incredibly
emotional visit for BCS served as a confirmation that what we do as singers can
be used as a tool for advocacy. One mural painted onto the exterior of the
building with the lyrics of “Como la cigarra”, a popular
song banned by Isabel Peron’s government. Written by Maria Elena Walsh at the
beginning of the Dirty War in 1972, the song signifies our survival of the
things that will otherwise kill us. BCS is now attempting to learn this song so
that we can bring home the message of the Argentine people who have suffered
needlessly.
A note on “Como la cigarra”: It was Julia’s idea to
have the chorus learn the song as a tribute to the Argentinians who disappeared
in the Dirty War.
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