SONGS FOR SIRINA

SATURDAY 24TH JUNE 2023, 4.00 PM

HEATH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, HAMPSTEAD

TICKETS £10 in advance or £12 on the door

Entry for under-18s is £5 (on the door only if accompanied by a full-ticket-paying adult)

Refreshments will be available

Rafael Montero (tenor) and Fabio Fernandes (baroque guitar) bring you an innovative programme of rarely heard early Andean baroque songs and instrumental pieces, mainly discovered in the C17 Codex Martinez and Codice Zuola of Peru. Sirina is the Andean goddess of music, depicted in Indigenous art as a merperson playing a guitar. These songs are about nature: flowers, mountains, the wind, birds, and the water (where Sirina lives). They express joy, reverence, care, and respect for the earth and all life on it.

The concert will include a new commission Pachamama Regina Coeli based on Andean themes by the composer Dominic McGonigal.

The one hour concert will be followed by an optional family-friendly workshop exploring the implications of these songs for the environment and living in harmony with nature. The Andean people live simply, with great respect for nature, giving back as much as they take. Their heritage and traditions can teach important lessons for our own care of the environment.

[The concert is given by kind permission of Ewan King, Minister, Heath Street Baptist Church]

Rafael Montero, founder of El Parnaso Hyspano, is a solo tenor and ensemble singer, singing teacher, and coach. His heritage is native American and Spanish, and he has spoken Quechua since he was a child. He specialises in renaissance Spanish and South American Baroque music and also in Romantic and contemporary chamber music from Hispanic South America and Spain. With fortepianist Carole Cerasi he has made the first recordings of the songs of South America’s pre-eminent classical composer, Pedro Ximénez Abril y Tirado. He has researched and devised the programmes that El Parnaso Hyspano presents, drawing on his heritage and wide contacts in the Latin American world. In July 2022 he sang the title role in the UK premiére of Domenico Zipoli’s San Ignacio de Loyola, a baroque opera written for indigenous people from whom he is descended. He is also collaborating with Border Crossings, an intercultural arts organisation founded and directed by Michael Walling, specialising in the presentation of indigenous art forms.

Fábio Fernandes is a young classical guitarist and lutenist at the beginning of a promising career. An eager and confident performer, he participated in both solo and ensemble concerts in Portugal, England, Czech Republic and Poland. Recent highlights include recitals at the Barbican Centre, St. James’s Church Piccadilly, Milton Court Music Hall and a concert as soloist in Carulli’s Concerto in G major for Flute, Guitar and Orchestra with the Orquestra Con Spirito. Alongside his performing of the traditional guitar repertoire, Fábio started playing the lute and theorbo in 2015 with David Miller and James Johnstone. He was notably invited by Dame Emma Kirkby to join her project Dowland Works. He performed alongside members of Academy of Ancient Music at the Deal Festival and also participated in the London Handel Festival during the GSMD Cantata Project. Fábio recently obtained a 2nd Prize in the 21st Ivor Mairants Guitar Award 2021 and a 3rd Prize in the Concorso di Chitarra "Gaetano Marziali" 2021. Fábio is also highly engaged with music writing, collaborating regularly with young composers.

Dominic McGonigal’s work has been described as "beautiful music" and “confident writing for instruments and voices, great textures and a perfect sense of spacing and pacing.” His latest work, Ave Maris Stella Takes Flight, recently won the Palimpsest Competition and will be released on Signum Records in September 2023. He found his voice as a composer with the Missa Et Incarnatus Est, a large work for 8-part choir, soloists and instrumental ensemble. This led to a commission from Pat Halling to write two string quartets for the Quartet Pro Musica. Vocal group Fever Pitch commissioned him to write a new piece, In The Beginning, for a major charity event in St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden and later performed in Southwark Cathedral. Recent commissions include La Fleur des Eaux for tenor and orchestra, works for theorbo and duets for teacher and student. A new ensemble of six sopranos, Philomel, commissioned him to write Night Song for their inaugural concert in November 2017. So began an artistic collaboration with poet Euan Tait and subsequent commissions. His Ave Maria à 10 and Night Song were selected for workshops by the BBC Singers with Judith Weir and Cecilia McDowell.

This concert is a production of early music ensemble www.elparnasohyspano.com