Aging and the Arts

A peña is an informal Latin American folk music gathering. Peñas are found in different forms across Latin America. Peñas are more participatory than a normal concert in that usually more than one musical group performs, group singing often occurs, and frequently community members are invited to share a song informally as part of the event. By design Peñas are intended to be inclusive community events open to music lovers of all ages. La Peña del SurCo is a new cultural initiative led by ethnomusicologist and arts and health researcher Dr. Jennie Gubner and her Argentine/Chilean folk music trio El SurCo. Gubner’s current research interests involve leveraging intercultural participatory music practices to foster and strengthen age-friendly and intergenerational healthy communities. La Peña del SurCo seeks to celebrate folk music traditions from Argentina, Chile and across Latin America while building community through intimate, acoustic, and participatory musical practices. This month also features the group Las Tradiciones.

El SurCo is a musical collective that blends guitars, violin, charango, bombo, and vocal harmonies to bring to life chacareras, cuecas, chamamés, gatos, and other popular and folk stringed music traditions from Argentina, Chile, and surrounding regions. The word surco means groove in Spanish, and references the furrows where seeds are planted in agricultural fields. A musical term with a rural subtext that speaks to the landscape where many of these styles emerged and continue to thrive, El SurCo (or The Southern Collective) transport their listeners into the diverse and vibrant musical ecosystems of the Southern tip of the Americas. El SurCo is composed of Maxi Larrea (guitar, vocals, bombo), Jennie Gubner (violin, vocals, bombo), and Andres Pantoja (guitar, charango, bombo, vocals).

Maxi Larrea is a tango and folk guitarist, arranger, composer and music educator from Rosario Argentina. He has been recording, performing and touring internationally for over 20 years. In 2020 he released a solo album of tango and folklore original compositions called Donde Termina el Río/Where the River Ends, and in 2021 received a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to publish a book of tango sheet music for guitar. In 2023 he was the recipient of a Southwest Folklife Alliance Master Artist Award. Andres Pantoja is a versatile Chilean musician, he plays classical, flamenco and Latin American music, guitar and charango. He has played in the USA, South America, and Europe and has recorded 8 albums. He also holds a Masters and Doctoral degree in Guitar performance from the University of Arizona. Jennie Gubner is a violinist and PhD ethnomusicologist who works at the University of Arizona as an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Intercultural Arts Research. Having spent years in Buenos Aires studying and performing tango and folk music within participatory music scenes, her research and performance activities focus on promoting music as a vehicle for intergenerational wellness and community building.

This event was organized by University of Arizona Ethnomusicologist Dr. Jennie Gubner in collaboration with Sydney Streightiff and the members of El SurCo.

University of Arizona Event Sponsors Include: Innovations in Health Aging (IHA). The Innovations in Healthy Aging Initiative at the University of Arizona was designed to connect older adults with UArizona. Learn more about how you can get involved at healthyaging.arizona.edu

The Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (AIAR GIDP) aiar.arizona.edu

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) https://clas.arizona.edu

For more information about this event series, please contact jgubner@arizona.edu