La Peña presents from Chile, Intimo /Intimate, a concert with INTI-ILLIMANI

La Peña presents from Chile, Intimo /Intimate, a concert with
INTI-ILLIMANI
Sunday November 09, 2008
$35 adv., $40 dr. - $45 premium seating - 7:30pm
At La Peña Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, Ca. 94705
510-849-2568 http://www.lapena.org

An intimate concert with the acclaimed Latin American music ensemble.
For over forty years Inti-Illimani's music has intoxicated audiences around the globe
and their seamless performances are a treasure to the human spirit.. In 2007, Inti-Illimani celebrated its 40th anniversary and the release of Pequeño Mundo, its forty-third album. Wedded in traditional Latin American roots & playing more than 30 wind, string & percussion instruments, Inti's compositions are a treasure for the human spirit. The group typically performs in large venues but this time the audience will have the privilege of experiencing Inti-Illimani in a very intimate setting. Inti will help fundraise in recognition of La Peña’s 34th season of presenting arts for social justice.

Limited number of premium seating is available only in adv., $45 (first three front rows).
No passes will be accepted to this event.


Inti-Illimani (Ayamara dialect: Inti - sun; Illimani - mountain near La Paz, Bolivia and pronounced Inte-E-gee-mane). For four decades Inti-Illimani's music has intoxicated audiences around the globe. In 2007, Inti-Illimani celebrates its 40th anniversary and the release of Pequeño Mundo, its forty-third album. Wedded in traditional Latin American roots and playing on more than 30 wind, string and percussion instruments, Inti-Illimani's compositions are a treasure for the human spirit. Their mellifluous synthesis of instrumentals and vocals captures sacred places, people's carnivals, daily lives, loves and pains that weave an extraordinary cultural mural.

Known for their open-minded musical approach, the "Intis" had a much different mission in mind when they met in the 60's at Santiago Technical University - to become engineers. Luckily for the world, their love of music encouraged their restless souls to explore the indigenous cultures of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina. In some of the poorest, purest and most ancient cultures they discovered Andean music and in a sense their roots. Inti-Illimani's music became Latin America's visceral link between pueblo and people, vivified in Nueva Canción.

In 1973, Chilean President Salvador Allende was deposed while Inti-Illimani was on tour in Europe. The young musicians found themselves without patria or passport. Italy became their home for the next 14 years. In 1988, they were warmly welcomed back to Chile, moving home permanently in 1990. Inti-Illimani became, and remains, South America's ambassadors of human expression.

Their unique sound -- forged with passion and poetry is a mantra for peace in the world and within ourselves.

They have appeared on Amnesty International stages with Peter Gabriel , Bruce Springsteen, Mercedes Sosa, Sting, and Wynton Marsalis; at benefit concerts for the Victor Jara Foundation (London, Dortmund, Glasgow) with Peter Gabriel, Paco Peña, John Williams, Emma Thompson, Karen Matheson, Maria Farantouri, Salsa Celtica, and the Rambert Dance Company and has shared the stage with Federico Fellini, Patricio Manns, Arja Saijonmaa, Holly Near, Mercedes Sosa,
Youssou'n'Dour, and Pete Seeger. It has been honored with the 1990 Lion of Venice, a Human Rights Award from UC Berkeley in 1997, and a nomination at the British Academy of Music (soundtrack category) for the 1982 BBC Film The Flight of the Condor.

Jorge Coulon, the group's founding member, in an interview stated: "We have never been so political that it was propaganda. We are not a political group in that sense, but we have always been politically engaged. We have a concept of society and about the relationships between human beings, and we try to translate our ideas into our sound, not to be part of one political party or another but in the sense to bring about a better world."

Pequeño Mundo continues Inti-Illimani's exploration of Latin American, Afro-Latino, and Italian sounds and includes the group's first foray into jazz-flavored composition. Its title track offers fans a preview of the soundtrack, being composed by Inti-Illimani, to the animated film My Little World, which is slated for release next year. My Little World is the first full length animated feature by independent filmmaker Mike Nguyen (Supervising Animator for Iron Giant). Longstanding admirers of the band will be delighted to see that in addition to Inti-Illimani's existing members, the CD features the work of several special guests who have a strong historical connection to the group, including founding member Max Berru, past members Pedro Villagra and Renato Freyggang, and longtime collaborator and dear friend Patricio Manns.

Since 2002, Inti-Illimani has welcomed four new members. "I believe the group at this moment is very modern; I would even say it's in the vanguard," stated Jorge Coulon in an interview with AARP Segunda Juventud . "What pleases me about this group today is that the creative risks it is taking are very much in keeping with our history while opening us to many perspectives, many possibilities." Manuel Meriño, musical director since 2002, sees the recording of Lugares Comunes (Common Places), released in 2003, as the point at which the newly configured ensemble came together. As the band's sound continues to embrace new musical sensibilities, the younger Intis are mastering classics like "Lo Que M Quiero" and "Candidos", which remain in the concert repertoire. But they don't feel constrained by the musical legacy they have inherited. Says Daniel Cantillana, violinist and frequent lead vocalist who has collaborated with Meriño on some of the new material, "rather, these songs establish an intangible aesthetic framework that lets us know whether a song can fit within what we do. It is our identity, and if it determines what we do, it does so very subtly."

In addition to its tours and recordings, in 2004 Inti-Illimani's music was used for the award winning documentary Devil's Miner, a moving portrait of 14 year old Basilio Vargas and his 12 year old brother Bernardino as they work in the Bolivian silver mines of Cerro Rico.

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