“Singing runs through my life,” he says Vanesa Chirkes with the certainty of a deep emotion that rises gently from her throat to her pupils. The girl who played at imitating the American Karen Carpenter, the singer and singing teacher who returns to the stage this Sunday at Bar de Fondo with Stamps of Latin Americaaccompanied by guitarist Pablo Zapata and Diego Cueto on percussion, has come a long way. On this journey there was a pause and a great threat. In the midst of the pandemic she put her body on the line to fight against breast cancer, which she managed to overcome.
Chirkes’ last recital was in 2019. That’s why he feels “great joy” to be back with Stamps of Latin Americawhich will have a second function in Classic and Modern on Friday, October 18 at 9 p.m., with a repertoire of songs that include: “The salt flat”by Raúl Carnota; “Coplas al agua”, by Juan Quintero; “Madera de deriva”, by Jorge Drexler; “Quién va a cantar”, by Rubén Rada and “María Landó”, by Chabuca Granda, among others. She has been giving singing classes for many years, a job that does “very good” to the soul, especially when the students progress and find their voices. “It was always difficult for me to have time for my own things, to make a place for myself, especially being a mother. This time I had the need to sing again. In 2020 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, at the beginning of 2021 I had chemotherapy, in the middle of 2021 I had surgery, I also did radiotherapy treatment, and then I had oral medication for a year,” the singer sums up in a calm tone, as if she were exhaling her fears and sadness in the enumeration of each stage of that fight, and adds that now she only has check-ups every six months.
“I would start singing and cry, I would get too emotional, I couldn’t sing in front of an audience, I was too vulnerable, too raw”remembers what happened to him during his convalescence. This year, that emotional fragility was healed when he contacted Pablo Zapata because he needed a guitarist for his students. “Once a month I have musical gatherings at home with my students and a guitarist accompanies us. So I knew I wanted to sing in public again and we started to work,” says Chirkes, who, without hurrying, with that strange calm that takes over the rhythm of existence after the storm of cancer, was trying and measuring himself with the themes. “Each song I chose has to do with things in my life, with things I dream about, with things that happened to me, with desires, with hopes, with things that hurt me or that make me sad, that make me anxious. There are some songs that have to do with the struggle of women,” she comments and reveals that she included the fado “Ai vida”, which she heard for the first time during the period in which she lived in Barcelona, from 2002 to 2007. At that time she gave music and singing classes to children aged three to six in Catalan and whenever she could she went on trips to more or less nearby cities such as Lisbon.
If water could speak or sing, it would do so in the manner of Chirkes, with a crystalline sweetness, like gentle waves that can break with intensity. Her first singing teacher was Edith Margulis; with her she began the journey of finding her own voice. At first she imitated Silvina Garré, “that sweet, heavenly voice, so in tune”, then she collected Barbra Streisand records until she began to listen to songs with “more force”, where percussion was very present. And she came across Argentine folklore with chacareras, zambas and cuecas. “I listened to Mercedes Sosa a lot; everything she says with her voice impresses me”, confesses the singer and also highlights the voices of Laura Albarracín and Ligia Piro.
“I always listened to music that touched my heart,” Chirkes admits. “What touches my heart I listen to and sometimes I play it through my body and it goes. But sometimes I play it through my body and it doesn’t go. One thing is what you listen to and another thing is what you can sing. At this point in the game, I’m 52 years old, it’s like saying I don’t sing for the sake of singing, I sing because there is something about those themes that have to do with me.; they are spoken from my deepest being.” Before heading off to rehearsal, the singer smiles and concludes: “Singing again makes me very happy.”
*Stamps of Latin America at Bar de Fondo (Julián Álvarez 1200), this Sunday at 3 pm. And on Friday, October 18 at 9 pm at Clásica y Moderna (Callao 892).
