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Created in July 2021, Sonomundo organized its first event this Sunday, November 28, at the home of Lionel Guérin, the association's president: a cultural, musical and friendly get-together, over a drink and the famous Peruvian ceviche, to launch the activities of this new organization, as presented to us by its key players.
Sonomundo is the brainchild of four personalities and friends keen to consolidate the ties between France and Peru by combining their respective expertise: Juan Arroyo is a composer, Lisa Andrea, director of cultural projects, and Mariangela Rosato, writer and Sonomundo treasurer. Romeld Bustamante, diplomat, researcher in the humanities and first secretary of Peru's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, also provides valuable advice on international relations. The association is currently working on a cultural cooperation project between the two countries in the form of a UNESCO charter. It will be based at Peru's National University of Music, and will be strengthened by a department of cultural management in the broadest sense of the term, which will fortify the knowledge of musicians and cultural players: with the organization of round tables, web training days and interdisciplinary events bringing together student musicians and artists from all horizons, as well as researchers in the social sciences and humanities: an ambitious project which lays the foundation stone for Sonomundo. " We're also thinking about programming a season touching on different areas of music, such as ethnomusicology (with work on Latin American repertoire archives), early music and creation ," enthuses Lisa Andrea Bidault. Juan Arroyo is currently working on an opera based on Rameau's Les Indes galantes, about the Incas of Peru, a superb project that links baroque music and sound creation.
Sonomundo also aims to be a space for connection and exchange," emphasizes Juan Arroyo, introducing the evening's two artists: French-Peruvian soprano Maya Villanueva, and Peruvian composer, conductor and pianist Fernando Valcárcel, current director of the National Symphony Orchestra (OSN) of Lima, who accompanies her on piano. The two artists met recently, at Maya Villanueva's recital as part of the Quipu du Pérou cultural fortnight, which ran from November 15 to 30 in Paris, Bordeaux and Marseille. (In connection with the event, read S. Onimo's review of the Regards ensemble concert, which featured a work by Fernando Valcárcel).
For the moment, Maya Villanueva sings melodies in French (Debussy), Spanish and Quechua (Edgar and Teodoro Valcárcel, respectively the composer's father and grandfather), with a soprano as agile as it is warm, illuminating this late evening.
Michèle Tosi
