Teresa García Herranz,
Guitarist

There is an immense

ethnic

 diversity in Mexico with more than 52 languages. Its

traditional

 music has been transmited from generation to generation, not in a purist and rigid way, but dynamically, with a growing

enrichment

.

Even though

Mariachi

 is the most known form of Mexican traditional music in Europe, there is an inmense

variety

 of

forms

 worth to be discovered: huapangos, sones, danzones, valses, cantadas, claves, boleros, etc, etc. What is common throughout this music is that in spite of all the problems in the world, one feels an injection of

vitality

 and

joy

 in listening, since sentimentality is mixed with a sense of

humour

 and

comic

 histrionics. A great strength of Mexican people is laughing at

adversity

, always being

playful

. It is this spontaneity and

vitality

 that we want to share with our European audience.

Singer Carmen Gabriela Lozada  has studied as a

classical

 singer and also as an

anthropologist

. Born in the

heart

 of Mexico, a region with a tradition of great singers, she grew up with the traditional music she learned from her mother and

grandparents

. In 2003, together with the

musicologist

 and pianist Lodewijk Muns, she embarked on an investigation of forgotten traditional repertoire.

Sentirse libre is a Concert Program that investigates new dynamic

relations

 between the

traditional

 Mexican music and

contemporary

 interpretations. The singer is accompanied by an ensemble of

guitar

 (Teresa Garcia Herranz) and

percussion

  (Manuel Ballenatus). The three artists does not only have

impressive

 educations from prestigious Conservatories in Europe but have also all lived

abroad

 in different countries for long periods of their lives, which has strengthen their deep

cultural

  understanding. It is this common aproach that gives Sentirse libre  a perfect ground for

intensified

interpretations as well as

freshness

to Mexican traditional music.

“SENTIRSE LIBRE is my personal response to six years of searching, rediscovering, painful losses and creative challenges. The Mexican music, the songs of my mother and grandparents are the force that makes me feel alive and has taught me to sing from my heart.” (Carmen Gabriela Lozada)