Music project
to teach youth about technology
Via
Mexican culture, history
By Laurie
Mellas-Ramirez
At the
heart of an international project building momentum in the University
of New Mexico College of Fine Arts is teaching young children
about technologys benefits and drawbacks via Mexican music,
folklore, culture and history.
Drawing
on Silvestre Revueltas musical composition Troka,
a celebration of the 1930s storybook character Troka el poderoso
(Troka the powerful), Mexican conductor Jorge Pérez-Gómez
of the UNM Music Department plans to take musical theatre to
new heights.
Troka,
a robot who represents industrialisms ideals and technology
in its many forms radio, airplane, telescope is
the principal protagonist in a series of stories written by
Mexican author German List Arzubide in the 1930s.
List hosted
a radio show that aired the tales of Troka whose transformations
mix elements of Mexican mythology and present technology.
When
Troka becomes a communication satellite it has the eyes of an
Aztec God. The idea is that Troka is all powerful, Pérez-Gómez
said.
In his
recently released compact disc titled Troka, Pérez-Gómez
conducts the Moravian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Olomouc,
Czech Republic, performing six pieces of Revueltas music.
Produced by Quindecim Recordings of Mexico, this is the first
recording of the renowned Mexican composer by a Czech orchestra.
The next
step of the project is to realize Reveultas intention
that the Troka composition be performed as dance theatre with
pantomime puppets.
Venezuelan
artist José Rodriquez has produced lithographs that will
also serve as puppet renderings. Three of the transformations
portrayed in the prints make reference to Lists original
narrative and two relate to recent technological developments.
The CD,
as well as 50 copies of each of the five limited edition lithographs,
printed by Mark Silverberg in Oaxaca, Mexico, are available
for sale.
Rodica
Focseneanu, a student in the UNM Art and Art History Department
from Romania, created a box modeled after a laptop computer
to store the original lithographs.
This
is a multilayered, global project, Pérez-Gómez
said. Rodica Focseneanu will also do the stage design.
Once the puppets are created we will do educational concerts
for children in New Mexico and near the border.
Associate
Professor Maria Williams of the UNM Arts of Americas Institute
(AAI) says the combination of culture, education, music and
technology makes it an ideal AAI project. The institute
is working with Pérez-Gómez to win grants for
puppet production and other performance related costs.
For information,
or to purchase a CD ($15) or lithograph ($100), call Jorge Pérez-Gómez,
505-277-5135.H