VIO-LATINO | sherrygrant

Introducing... Alto Nova Duo!

Dutch violist Emlyn Stam and NZ pianist Sherry Grant first met at the 47th International Viola Congress in USA (2022), and then again at the 48th International Viola Congress in Thailand (2023).

They decided in 2023 to collaborate as a duet for the 49th International Viola Congress in Brazil (July 2024) to present a new programme of contemporary music, written especially for them by expat South American composers, followed by a tour around South America. This would be first project before they set off to explore more viola repertoire, both new and old, known and unknown, to introduce to audience around the world.

Sherry Grant
(New Zealand/Taiwan)

Emlyn Stam
(Netherlands/Canada)

¡Vio-Latino!

What is Vio-Latino?

Vio-Latino is a programme of brand new compositions for viola and piano by composers originally from South America living outside of their home countries. The programme is made up of 10 commissioned works for which each of the composers was invited to explore elements of his/her South American cultural heritage and reflect on how this has influenced and informed their compositional style. The program further explores the notion of migration, belonging and how cross-cultural interactions influence our experience of the world and the art we create. The Vio-Latino recital world premiere, a 50-minute programme, will be presented in a multimedia format where the music is accompanied by poetry reading and a photographic display of accompanying visual art by contemporary South American creatives.

Dutch Violist Emlyn Stam and New Zealand Pianist Sherry Grant curated this program with the 49th International Viola Congress 2024 in Campinas Brazil in mind. Their aim is to tour further in South America as well as to record these new works.

Who is composing for Vio-Latino?

10 composers born in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil who are currently living and working in the UK, USA, Australia, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Cuba and Israel have been invited to write new viola/piano works for the VioLatino project. The composers are:

Moshe Knoll (Venezuela/USA)

Composer and pianist Moshe Knoll grew up in Venezuela and pursued further studies at Julliard School of Music. He currently resides in New York and is composer in residence at the ArtsAhmisa Music Festival.

Luis Saglie (Chile/Australia)

Luis Saglie is an international composer with regular performances and projects in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania. Recipient of international prizes and awards, Saglie acts as curator and adjudicator for international music festivals and competitions. He received formal studies as a composer, conductor and pianist at Music and Arts University in Vienna and UCLA in the USA. Saglie teaches Composition at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Andrián Pertout (Chile/Australia)

Pertout lives in Melbourne, Australia. He was born and raised in Santiago, Chile before pursuing his studies in Italy and Australia. His works have been widely performed in Australia, the USA, Europe and South America and apart from instrumental works, he has written music for documentaries and dance performances. Pertout is fascinated by the application of scientific and mathematic concepts in his music.

Martin Musaubach 明馬丁 (Argentina/Taiwan)

Musa is a multi-award winning Argentinean/Taiwanese musician. Born in the city of La Plata, at a young age took the opportunity to travel the world and found success as an artist, composer and producer in East Asia. Ha currently resides in Taipei where his own indie label, 3690 Studios is based.

Polo Piatti (Argentina/UK)

Piatti grew up and studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has resided in the UK for over 30 years. He is a Neo Romantic composer and his works focus on melody and big, romantic gestures and have been performed by the Prague Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players and the National Symphony Orchestra among others.

Barbara Varassi (Argentina/Netherlands)

Varassi hails from Rosario, Argentina. As a postdoctoral scholar and author, she is one of the world’s leading experts on tango composition and performance practice. Her works explore new avenues in tango, often integrating elements from post-tonal contemporary classical music. She has composed for the Astor Piazzolla Quintet, Tango Tinto and the New European Ensemble among others. She currently resides in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Silvina Milstein (Argentina/UK)

Milstein grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She currently resides in Cambridge, UK. She studied composition with Judith Weir at Glasgow University. She is fascinated by exploring the integration of the native music of Buenos Aires in her compositional language. Her works have been performed by Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the BBC singers and others.

Marius Díaz (Colombia/Cuba)

Originally from Bogota, Colombia, Diaz studied and lived in Havana, Cuba for many years. He currently studies at the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid with Fabián Panisello. His works received numerous prizes in Colombia, Cuba, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. He is also active as an editor, researcher, pedagogue and documentalist.

Jean Kleeb (Brazil/Germany)

Kleeb was born in Santo Andre, Brazil. He moved to Germany in 1991 to continue his work as a composer, pianist, arranger, choir and orchestra director, singer and music teacher. He is often a visiting lecturer in Europe, USA, and South America and jury member at international choir festivals. His compositions for orchestra, chamber music, piano and choir range stylistically from modern, classical, popular music to world music.

Daniel Rojas (Peru-Chile/Australia)

Daniel Rojas is an award-winning composer, pianist, and improviser who draws inspiration from a variety of vibrant Latin American genres. He is frequently commissioned to compose solo, chamber, and orchestral works, with his music often featured on Australian national and local broadcasting networks. Rojas is a regular performer as soloist, a chamber musician and soloist with symphony orchestras. Holding the position of Associate Professor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he has also served as a program leader for the Composition and Arts Music departments.

Multimedia Presentation at Vio-Latino

10 local poets and 10 visual artists from South America will be curated at the Vio-Latino recitals.

The Poets

Natalia Litvinova (Argentina)

Natalia Litvinova is an Argentine poet, translator, and editor of the press Editorial Llantén. Her books have been translated into multiple languages and published in France, Germany, and Spain, as well as in Argentina. She teaches writing classes in libraries and in the Argentine Psychoanalytic Center Foundation (Fundación Centro Psicoanalítico Argentino). She was born in Gomel, Belarus, and has lived in Buenos Aires since her family’s immigration there in 1996.

Adriana Lisboa (Brazil)

Adriana Lisboa was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. She is the author of several award-winning novels, poetry collections, short stories, and children's books. Her poems and stories have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, Granta, and Revista Casa de las Américas, among others. Her books have been published in more than twenty countries. Adriana has a MA in Brazilian Literature and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Rio de Janeiro State University. She has lived in France, New Zealand and the United States - where she currently resides, in Austin, Texas.

Marina Burana (Argentina/Taiwan)

Marina Burana is a painter and puppeteer/puppet builder. She is also a writer, a barkcloth maker, a performer and a facilitator of participatory art projects for different types of communities. She has published 3 books of short stories in Spanish: A Merlina (Al Margen, 2007), Of Writers and Miserias (El Aleph, 2008) and Real Fictions (Ediciones Masmédula, 2014) and has collaborated with essays, prose, poetry, designs and illustrations for books and magazines from various countries. Her plays in English and Spanish have been presented in the US, Spain, Canada, England, Taiwan, Peru, Uruguay and Argentina. Her paintings are usually showcased in individual and group exhibitions, both in public and commercial galleries, and in Museums. As a puppeteer she has been trained/collaborated with Natacha Belova, TAMTAM objektentheater, Florent Olivier Schwartz, Théâtre de la Sardine, Puppet and Its Double, Puppetry Art Center of Taipei, IATI Theater, Duda Paiva and others. She studied at the Art Students League of New York and received her BA degree in Art, with a concentration in painting from National Taipei University of the Arts (TNUA). IG: @burana_studio. Marina plays the violin and the viola.

Fredy Chikangana (Colombia)

His name in the indigenous language is Wiñay Mallki, which means "root that remains in time." He is a Quechua poet and oralitor from the Yanakuna Nation, in the Yurak Mayu territory of the Cauca Department, Colombia. He won the National University Poetry Prize in Humanities in 1992 and the Nosside Multilingual Global Poetry Prize in Italy in 2019. He has participated in national and international poetry events in native languages, and his poems have been translated into Italian, French, English, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Romanian, and German. He has published the books "Kentipay llattantutamanta/el colibrí de la noche desnuda" in 2008, "Samay Pisccok pponccopi muschcoypa/Espíritu de pájaro en pozos del ensueño" in 2010, and the shared books "Voces de Abya Yala" by Editorial Icono in 2012 and "El círculo de la palabra" by Ed. Universidad Externado in 2008. He has worked on strengthening the Quechua Yanakuna Mitmak identity and "Oraliture," a task he shares with native siblings in the American continent. In recognition of his contribution to the literature of indigenous peoples and identity processes, he received an acknowledgment from the University of Cauca in 2023.

Rosabetty Muñoz (Chile)

Rosabetty Muñoz was born in Ancud, Chiloé, in 1960. She has published 14 books, including "Canto de una oveja del Rebaño" (Song of a Sheep from the Flock), "En Lugar de Morir" (Instead of Dying), "Ratada" (Rodent), "En Nombre de Ninguna" (In the Name of None), "Polvo de Huesos" (Bone Dust), "Ligia", "Técnicas para cegar a los peces" (Techniques to Blind Fish), "Misión Circular" (Circular Mission), "Santo Oficio" (Holy Office), and "La Voz de la Casa" (The Voice of the House). She has received the 2000 Pablo Neruda Prize for her body of works; the Altazor Prize in 2013; Member of the Chilean Academy of Language; Santiago Municipal Prize in poetry for the book "Técnicas para Cegar a los Peces" (2020-2021) and the Jorge Teillier National Poetry Prize 2022.

Carmen Andrea Mantilla (Chile)

MORE TO COME...

The Artists

Diego Gravinese (Argentina)

Diego Gravinese had his first exhibitions in Buenos Aires, after a brief attendance at the National School of Fine Arts at age 19. He later moved to NY where he had more successful shows, followed by exhibitions in Germany and the rest of Europe. Diego Gavinese's work has evolved over the years, from a social critique influenced by the Argentine Neo Figuración, the American pop and expressionism, the post-punk movement and the advent of the digital era, towards a more personal search joining a review of the history of figurative painting with an inner return to the search for the immanent mystery linked to the awakening of the feminine conscience, figuratively embodied in her Venus series of recent years. Diego's artworks are held in many important collections around the world.

Shalak Attack (Chile/Canada)