04/27/2007

Special to the Record-Eagle
Los Folkloristas bring their Latin American music to the City Opera House in Traverse City today and Sunday.

Spartan Outreach

MSU's Wharton Center presents Los Folkloristas

TRAVERSE CITY — In the 25 years since it was built, Michigan State University's Wharton Center has become the state's largest and most diverse presenter of performing arts entertainment and education.

Now it wants to make its programs more accessible to northern Michigan residents, said the center's executive director.

The center will present a program of Latin American music with Los Folkloristas at 7 p.m. today at the City Opera House and again for area students at Traverse City Central High School at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

The programs are part of a new outreach collaboration with the City Opera House and Traverse City Public Schools, said Mike Brand, who took over the reins at Wharton Center in late 2003. The East Lansing center will present about 50 shows on its current season, but whether any more will make their way to Traverse City is unclear.

"I think we're just kind of test-driving to see how it works and how we would fit in,” Brand said, adding that he has also been exploring the idea of co-booking with the Dennos Museum Center. "It's just all about trying to be more of a statewide resource.”

Featured on the soundtracks of the films "El Norte” and "Mi Familia,” Los Folkloristas have performed and recorded the traditional music of Mexico, Central and South America for more than 40 years. Traveling extensively to gather the songs, stories and instruments of the regions, the seven-member ensemble spends hours with village elders and masters of the local styles. Often it has saved a song from extinction by seeking out the last old "campesino” or peasant who still sings the music his grandfather taught him.

The group's collection of 100 instruments ranges from traditional guitars and violins to flutes, drums, rasps, rattles and reeds. It includes dried butterfly cocoons, gourds, turtle shells and armadillo shells complete with hair.

Taking its name from the phrase for "folklore people,” the group got its start in 1966 in Mexico City, where about 20 friends met regularly to play and sing regional folk music. Since then it has released more than 30 albums, performed on radio and television, and presented more than 2,000 concerts worldwide.

Now it is recognized as one of the foremost proponents of Latin music and of "nueva cancion” or new song, the contemporary music of modern-day Latin Americans.

The group appeared Thursday at the Wharton Center as part of the center's World Music and Dance Series. Its performance at the City Opera House will augment that facility's in-house programming, which includes acoustic music and movie series, said Sheryl Hayward, executive director of the City Opera House Heritage Association.

As part of its partnership with the Wharton Center, the association is providing the Opera House at a reduced cost and also is providing box office support, she said.

"Our commitment is to do what we can to help underwrite and support those kinds of things that are coming,” Hayward said.

General admission tickets are $25 at the Opera House box office, by calling 941-8082, Ext. 203, or visiting the Web site, www.cityoperahouse.org.