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She is one of the leading names on the Bolivian experimental scene. Canela Palacios (1979) is a composer and performer. In 2015, she founded the Casa Taller collective, a meeting and creation space in the Andean capital, La Paz.
Suzanne Gervais: How would you define your music and what are your sources of inspiration?
Canela Palacios : I think my music belongs to what some of us call contemporary academic music, although I also write popular music, especially songs. My sources of inspiration come from what I listen to on a daily basis, what I see, what I read, quite simply. It could be a piece of music, a book, an idea... I'm very observant.
You've created an artistic collective. What is your objective and who comes together?
La Casa Taller is a collective of Bolivian artists, but also a meeting place in La Paz. It is run by composers Miguel Llanque, Sebastián Zuleta and myself, although there are many other people, particularly young composers who are former students of the Casa Taller or people who regularly attend our activities: masterclasses, performances, workshops, concerts... because we are a place for training as well as creation. From the outset, we wanted to create a space dedicated to the training of composers, which is not really taken into account in the various music teaching establishments in Bolivia.
In France and, more generally, in Europe, the creative sector is faced with a number of challenges, not least of which is less public support. What is the situation in Bolivia?
In Bolivia, the situation for the arts in general is very painful, based on the public support received by artists and institutions. Existing funds, which were already very scarce, were almost totally suspended with the pandemic. It is now virtually impossible to survive economically on artistic work, and not just in music: in all its fields. The professionalization of artists is reduced and the quality of proposals is low, since everyone has to devote themselves to a parallel activity in order to survive. Fortunately, composition is a field in which you can work remotely without any problem. We can receive commissions from orchestras or festivals in other parts of the world, and we're not totally dependent on the economic situation in our own country. For my part, I work regularly for German festivals such as Donaueschinger Musiktage, where Los Otros was premiered by the Bolivian ensembles Ensemble Maleza and CG on October 15, 2021.
What is the audience for new and creative music in La Paz and Bolivia in general?
In Bolivia, the field of new or contemporary music is very small. There aren't many of us, and activity is centered in La Paz, Cochabamba and, to a lesser extent, Santa Cruz. But I think it's happening all over the world. Contemporary academic music evolves in smaller circles than popular music, for example. However, if our circle is small in number of people, it's large geographically: we consider composers from Colombia, Argentina, Peru, etc. as our colleagues, and we have relationships and exchanges with them. We play their music in our country, and they play our music in theirs.
Interview by Suzanne Gervais
