Audiences can expand their music taste at the upcoming Early Music Latin America Festival. From Renaissance and Baroque European repertoire to musical genres meant to be heard and admired.  

Lindsey Macchiarella, Ph.D., is a musicologist professor at UTEP and is the project director behind the upcoming event.  

The festival is a gateway to expanding the mind to different genres of music while informing the public about the history behind it.  

“This project promotes early Latin American music,” Macchiarella said. “There’s a lot of Renaissance and Baroque music all over the world actually, but when people think about it, they just think of European music.”  

The Early Music Latin America Festival teaches the public about how diverse cultural backgrounds can be, even within music. Music has a historical lineage many are not aware of, and as cultures collide, new forms of music are being shared and created.  

Compared to Renaissance and Baroque music, this event brings the mix of incorporating Latin American music that had rarely been recorded, taught or heard of.  

“During the 16th and 17th centuries there was a lot of influence coming over from Spain, there was a lot of influence in music getting mashed up with native cultures and native music and also with the African diaspora in Mexico and other Latin American countries and it creates this really interesting fusion music that people are unaware of,” Macchiarella said. 

Gabriel Rodriguez Guijarro is an international UTEP graduate student and is currently working on getting his master’s degree. Guijarro found an interest in participating with local musicians, where he soon met Macchiarella. Guijarro plays the viola da gamba and will be performing at the workshop the festival is having.  

Guijarro spoke about how uncommon it is to hear early Latin American music while being a resident from Mexico.  

“It’s really interesting that people in the United States are interested in Latin American early music,” Guijarro said. “Even being an international student from Mexico, it is not that common to find this type of music. It’s hard to find, hear, or discuss it with others. I think it is useful for everyone and it’s interesting that people are getting interested into this type of music.”  

Guijarro spoke about the difference between art and music and how the event engages in something suitable for every viewer.  

“You have the opportunity to be part of it,” Guijarro said. “Sometimes it’s not too easy to understand or to participate in it but when we are talking about music, you still have that participation during the performance and the audience has the feeling they participated by viewing the performance.”  

With the performance date quickly approaching, Macchiarella shares what the audience can expect from this event.  

“This production has a lot of different moving parts, but the two main features of it are workshops where people are coming from all over the country and also locally to learn how to play a lot of this early Latin American music,” Macchiarella said. “The main public part is the concert.” 

The Early Music Latin America Festival will be held at 7:30 p.m., March 2, in the Fox Fine Arts Building. Admission is free and the event is welcome to all of El Paso to experience new forms of music.  

Marco Hinojosa is the audience and engagement editor and may be reached at [email protected]