Eliana Echeverry’s musical career is a story of stubbornness. Her obstinacy has been the flag that has accompanied her until she became the outstanding composer and director that she is today, taking Colombian and Latin American music to other territories in new formats.
Eliana has the type of character that stands firm in her decisions, even if it means going against plans on many occasions. That was when she made the decision to leave behind the three years of psychology that she had studied at the National University and request a transfer to the conservatory and begin her studies in music with an emphasis on composition. The change generated all kinds of family reactions and her close environment, she was the weirdo in a home where there were no musicians. However, the musical environment was varied and is, according to her, the reason why music became her greatest interest: Mozart to do homework, cumbias that her mother sang and danced, a father who listened to salsa all day and a grandmother who loves the songs of Vicente Fernández, sometimes, others, of the classical one. It was precisely a phrase from her grandmother that kept her afloat in the tide that was unleashed by the change in career and that became the mantra of her life: “You can be and dream what you want” .
Two or three piano lessons, nothing to read music, a lot of hearing. Eliana calls it the spirit of jazz, listening and playing repeating the music from memory. She finally studied at a conservatory, but that instinct makes her pay attention to everything she is listening to and think about possible adjustments, something always to change. Stubbornness has been her greatest virtue when looking for new musical paths to find a new sound within classical music. He studied Carnatic music from South India at the Amsterdam Conservatory under the guidance of Rafael Reina and Jonas Brisquet and, later, thanks to the scholarship for young talents sponsored by the Bank of the Republic, he completed a master’s degree in composition at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire. in London, where he feels he has finally been able to find his place in music: “We are in a world that has many borders, but culture knows no barriers. And above all, when one is outside, one realizes that one is not Colombian, one is Latino”, she affirms.
The composer and director Eliana Echaverry presents Unbreakable Bonds
Andrea Moreno. Time
a music journey
Dreaming is what has brought this Bogotana to repeat in their land the concert ‘Unbreakable Bonds: A Musical Journey through Colombia’, which was a success in Barcelona in celebration of the Colombian national holiday, on July 20, at the which had the support of the Colombian Consulate in Barcelona, the Liceu Conservatory of Music and the Bastón de Oro Group, and which will bring together 22 local musicians in a big band, mostly women, a novelty for a format that usually It is a masculine field and one in which the composer has nine years of experience.
“The concert was born from the idea of having a party in which borders and passports did not matter. Choosing the repertoire I realized that it is very difficult to find a sound that was only Colombian. Cumbias go from Mexico to Argentina, we share llanera music with Venezuela, we share music from the Pacific with Ecuadorians and Peruvians”.
The taste for the big band is not recent, he began to forge from his childhood listening to orchestras that already presented traditional Colombian music with a different sound, loaded with trumpets, trombones and saxophones, as the memorable and emblematic orchestra of Lucho Bermúdez did. . “Traditional music is closely associated with certain instruments such as the harp or the accordion. This is reimagining those sounds in other colors. Lucho Bermúdez and other composers have already done that with cumbias. In the end, most of those cumbias that we have in our memory are in big band format”.
Mix of regions
The repertoire of this concert includes songs from different geographical and cultural regions of Colombia with the touch that the composer knows how to print in her productions: a mixture of what has been her diverse formation that moves between the world of classical music and the sounds of jazz, with some touches of urban and popular music that enrich his compositions and arrangements.
Eliana has worked arranging for artists of various genres such as Antonio Arnedo –whom she considers one of her jazz mentors–, Aterciopelados, N. Hardem, Juanes and Monsieur Periné. The spirit of breaking barriers is always present, in which music does not have to stick to genres, much less its style. “Each music is made for the ears of its time and times are changing. Today we have different formats and resources, and the only way for the tradition to continue alive is if it transforms with them. Otherwise, the tradition will be a museum thing”.
On Wednesday, he will present the result of this mixture of musical and cultural knowledge, also accompanied by guests from the Bogotá music scene. It will also be the opportunity to talk about gender claims in an environment where the roles of musical direction and composition have traditionally been represented by men. Another dream that is already underway: a community of creative women in which they can all rely on to show their talent, created by Eliana from a pilot composition seedbed for girls since September with the Sergio Arboleda University that intends to be a project in the long term: “I was always the only one before many men, and yes, that generated a lot of insecurities for me. How amazing it would be to have a safe space for girls to explore their creativity and ideas without being told that it doesn’t make sense.”
ANDREA MORENO
Photography The Weather
IG: @andreamphoyo
UNBREAKABLE TIES CONCERT: A MUSICAL JOURNEY THROUGH COLOMBIA
Sonia Fajardo Forero Auditorium. Konrad Lorenz University Foundation.
Cra. 9th bis n.º 62-43.
Wednesday August 30 7 pm
Tickets at Atrapalo.com.co
2023-08-27 04:45:52
#realize #Colombian #Latino
