13.12.10 - Pampas: Art and Culture in the 19th Century

Beatriz Pichi Malen. Mapuche music. Last concerts: December 11 and 18, 8PM

LAST CONCERT. Saturday December 18 – 8PM.

Information: auditorio@proa.org / (011) 4104-1001
Admission: $30

“Each performance is a celebration” says Beatriz Pichi Malen, one of the most distinguished voices of Mapuche music, to describe her shows. “That is why” she continues “I sing stories: I narrate how I got to singing, how I snatched it. I talk about what the wind from Patagonia means to us, in that strength, hitting the mounts and bringing rocks together, is where the wind chant appears”.

Next Saturday December 18, at 8PM, Pichi Malen will perform at Proa’s Auditorium in her last concert programmed for this year. The last show will be on Saturday December 18.

Nearly deprived of technological assistance, the show she will give at Proa reveals different Mapuche compositions: sacred, profane and popular chants and songs of sorrow and pain, all evoking the symbols of this culture. Pichi Malen accompanies her songs with brief explanations and stories in a captivating, almost ritual, concert that reveals the strength and subtleness of traditional Mapuche music.

Descendant of cacique Ignacio Coliqueo, Pichi Malen is devoted to the search and diffusion of her ancestors’ culture, which she accomplishes through these recitals, recordings and editions of Mapuche songbooks.

In her extensive artistic career, she has had several presentations in Latin American European and North American cities. She edited two records and her songs are included in important international ethnic music compilations. In 2002, she performed a series of memorable concerts at Fundación Proa.

“I am a messenger of the tuned word. Singing is what drives me; it is a Mapuche taught, because, in our culture, all beings are destined for something. Some of us can find what we came for in our lifetime, some of us can’t and we transit life without ever having blossomed. The manchi –healers- told me that singing was what brought me to this world.”

+ info: http://www.pichimalen.com/