Chilean Nueva Canción Duo
Schwenke y Nilo
Saturday July 07, 2007
$20 - Concert: 8:30pm Exhibit opening: 3-5pm
Opening band: Los Materos
Chilean Nueva Canción favorite duo Schwenke y Nilo in Concert, direct from Chile.
Two remarkable composers, vocalists and accomplished musicians bring their typically Chilean wit and compassion to their music. Nelson Schwenke and Marcelo Nilo's songs have inspired entire generations of Chileans in their struggles during and after the military dictatorship.
Their idea of song at "the center of humanity" implies that humans are vast enough to distinguish within themselves a center. This forms a most important concept for the compositions and music of Nelson Schwenke (Master of Arts in Archaeology) and Marcelo Nilo (Music Instructor). Their music and lyrics rotate around human nature and their abilities to react positively against the myriad problems that arise in a contradictory socio-ecological environment.
Schwenke & Nilo burst into the popular new song movement in 1979 (in the midst of a brutal and bloody military dictatorship) in the Festival de Canto Estudiantil, Santiago's Student's Song Festival. In this festival there were finalists with their song "El Viaje" (the voyage), a composition where the pure anecdotal, the synthesis of the socio-cultural context and a certain dose of "mystery" (probably steaming from the early religious education of Schwenke) coexist attesting to the dramatic plight of the Chilean people and its artists.
Ever since then, the duo became very popular with vast sectors of Chilean students and intellectuals, thanks to the constant renewal of its repertoire and the ample thematic specter of its compositions. From this period are, among others, "Mi Cancion", "Raiz del Tiempo", "Islas del Sur", and "Nos Fuimos Quendando en Silencio".
"Troveros" Schwenke & Nilo occupy a most salient place in the underground music of the Nueva Canción, an art and social movement that resisted the oppression and the "cultural blackout" of the military regime" which ended in 1999.
For more information press here
The opening band Los Materos are María Loreto Ramírez, Axel Herrera, Jairo Rodríguez y Alfonso Jaramillo.
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Exhibit opening in the Lobby 3-5pm: “Los hilos de la vida”
