Paraguay Barroco played six pieces of baroque music, including the delightful Cachuas a dúo y a Quattro al Nacimiento, https://youtu.be/3uithyQIGes, in which the soprano singer, Jessica Bogado, plays an instrument made of the hooves of llamas (imported from Peru), and the harpist, our own harp teacher Victoria Oviedo, plays an instrument made of the jawbone of a donkey – as well as playing her own baroque harp with its double row of strings.
The Sonidos del Mundo orchestra is an international group in which musicians from Korea, Germany, Brazil and Ecuador joined some of Paraguay’s top musical students to play some Brahms dances, a Strauss pizzicato polka, and an aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute. One of the students supported by SMEF, Sebastian Rios, was among the violinists.
The group of violin students from Santa María had the opportunity to begin the concert, with Zipoli’s Suscipe and a popular Paraguayan folk piece, Despedida. (Our violinists in the photo, in the front row, are Adela, Jesús, Romina and Laura.) The whole concert ended with another two national favourites, Pájaro Campana and Isla Sakã. Santa María was honoured to be selected as the first of six venues for the concert. The concert was arranged by the Sonidos de la Tierra foundation, that has done so much to enable students from rural areas to learn classical music, and that is currently paying our violin teacher.
