Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies
Featuring the Ensemble Fronteras del Silencio (The Borders of Silence) with conductor, composer and founder Alejandro Iglesias Rossi.
The
Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments
and New Technologies is a project supported through the
Institute for Ethnomusicology and Creation in Traditional and
Avant-Garde Arts at the National University at Tres de Febrero,
Argentina.
Founder of the Institute and the Orchestra, Sr. Alejandro Iglesias Rossi, composer and conductor for the Orchestra is Director of the Institute. He is an internationally acknowledged composer with his works performed around the world at Concert Halls (Carnegie Hall, Centre Georges Pompidou, Concertgebouw-Amsterdam, Lincoln Center, Oslo, Konserthus, Queen Elizabeth Hall) as well as Festivals (Berlin Biennale, Warsaw Autumn, Festival d’Orleans, Steirischer Herbst, World Music Days, Foro de Música Nueva-Mexico, Festival Présences de Radio France).
He is the only composer in history who received the two main UNESCO Awards for music: the First Prize of the International Rostrum of Composers (Paris 85) for his work Ancestral Rites of a Forgotten Culture (on ancient Quechua texts) to be considered by the International Music Council a “masterwork of the 20th Century” as well as the First Prize of the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (Amsterdam 96) for his work Angelus. Since May 2005, he has served as President of the Argentine National Music Council (UNESCO/IMC).
At the core of the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies is the Ensemble Fronteras del Silencio (The Borders of Silence) which is a group of composers-performers who are either teachers or advanced students at the Electronics Arts Department and the Master Degree in Musical Creation, New Technologies and Traditional Arts at the National University, also founded and directed by Sr. Alejandro Iglesias Rossi.
The Ensemble and the Orchestra have performed at national and international events, including the World Music Days-Hong Kong 2007, the Reflections Festival (Singapore 2007), the Indonesian Art Summit (Jakarta 2007), AD LIBITUM Festival in Warsaw (Poland 2006), International Festival IS ARTI of Kaunas (Lithuania, 2006), PORTA World Music Festival of Riga (Letonia 2006), Eesti Concert Season of Estonia (Tallinn, 2006), Series of the Municipal Theater of La Paz (Bolivia 2005), Australasian Computer Music Association Festival in Wellington (New Zealand 2004), International Festivals of the Net for Musical Research and Creation of the Américas (Santiago de Chile 2004, Island of the Sun of the Titicaca Lake 2005, Buenos Aires 2006), International Festival EIMC at the National Museum of Fine Arts (Buenos Aires, 2002, 2003), XII Chilean Festival of Contemporary Music (Catholic University of Chile and Valparaiso University 2002), Meeting of the Music Council of the Three Americas of UNESCO (Buenos Aires 2001) as well as at the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires Opera House) in Argentina.
The recordings of the Ensemble and Orchestra have been broadcast by internationally by BBC Radio, Radio France, Deutschland Radio-Berlin, RAI 3, Polish National Radio, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, NHK-Tokyo, Sociétè Radio Canada-CBC, Danmarks National Radio, New Zealand Radio, Radio Beethoven de Chile, Radio Nacional de Argentina, among others.
The Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies and the Ensemble Fronteras del Silencio are available internationally for Concert and Festival performances, workshops, demonstrations, lectures and residencies.
Maestro Alejandro Iglesias Rossi is available internationally for both conducting and commissions for the creation of new works as well as lectures and composer in residence programs.
Also available is a seminar and workshop program on Lutherie of indigenous instruments of Latin America. The workshop will instruct people in how to construct instruments (both in clay and cane) in maximum two days.
For more information please click here.
Audio Samples
Please use the links below to hear some music samples from
the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies. All samples are saved in .MP3 format for compatibility with
the widest range of music player software. All files are recorded at
192 kbps for high quality playback over most high speed connections.
Ritual (7:00 6.6 MB)
Viento Negro (7:38 7.1 MB)
Ceremonia de Sangre y Piedra (8:22 7.8 MB)
Yaku iamaraka (7:41 7.2 MB)
Ajayu Llumpa (7:17 6.8 MB)
Alaxpachankiri (7:38 7.1 MB)
Grimorio de Fuego (9:36 9.0 MB)
Sacrificio Resplandor y Plegaria (7:30 7.0 MB)
Dikyrion (7:10 6.7 MB)
Genesis y Transfiguracion (8:59 8.4 MB)
Video Samples
Video samples are available on YouTube. For your convenience, the link below will open in a new window:
YouTube Page featuring Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies
Comments from the International Media
“Rituality and Ecstasis in
Latin-American Art music...Alejandro Iglesias Rossi directs and
focuses the musical energy of the Ensemble from meditation to
ecstasis. According to Iglesias Rossi, music making is based on
sensing the connection with ancestral heritage as well as on craving
for perfection.”
Post Times Newspaper (Tallinn, Estonia,
11/13/2006)
"...amazing performance at the
Indonesia Art Summit… …no mere orchestral concert, this was a
ritual…the Conductor Alejandro Iglesias Rossi directed the
performers' musical energies through a shifting, meditative
atmosphere…"
Garuda Indonesia Magazine ( Indonesia;
December 2007)
“…a stunning shower of sonic force... a magnificent meditation about the posible fate of Tradition and technological advances…”“Temazcal…a stunning display of Rossi´s talent on Maracas”“Lonquén begins with the mournful words of the breathtakingly talented Susana Ferreres. Her vocals increase in intensity as the barrage of instruments roar around her, reaching a painful poignant crescendo.”
“With the Orchestra of Indigenous
Instruments and New Technologies, Alejandro Iglesias Rossi has
created a praiseworthy musical medium where the past and the future
correlate peacefully and beautifully.”
The Jakarta Post (Indonesia; 11/19/2007)
“…an incredible event…the Orchestra
showed a great spirit and energy …they perform a unique music and
took the audience to a place out from this world”“…the Iglesias
Rossi´s performance in a soloist piece for maracas was astonishing,
made the audience to be stunned and to end in long applauses”
Suara Pembumaran Newspaper (Indonesia;
November 14, 2007)
“If all musicians would be able to
invocate the sound with such conscious and profound attention and
concentration as this argentine Ensemble did, maybe the amount of
concerts in the world would be reduced but the artistic satisfaction
would highly increase . A miraculous interpretation of Lonquen, by
Sergio Ortega was offered ... the whole Hall was astonished by the
interpretation of Susana Ferreres, who transformed the work in a
rite of musical sacrifice.”
Letonian National Radio (Program “News on
Music”) on the performance of the Orchestra at the PORTA World Music
Festival 2006
“…Iglesias Rossi conducted the music
as if it was energy, making it flow from the meditation till taking
the audience far away from the reality…”“… the six pieces performed
by Iglesias Rossi and the Orchestra, at the same time that they were
moving far away from the silence, they managed to set up another
kind of silence at the audience´s soul.”“…The Orchestra blend the
traditional music from the Latinamerican Traditional Music with the
New Technologies, creating an unique music… an unique sound…”
Media Indonesia Newspaper (Java; November
15, 2007)
“Each performance by this Ensemble has
a ritual character, with primitive sonorities contrasting with
electronic processes as well as a non-traditional instrumentation
that responds to the expression of extra musical elements. Each work
is preceded by a text that enlightens on the inspirational source of
the score.”
Radio Beethoven from Chile (Program “Siglo
XX”) on the performance of the Ensemble at the Contemporary Festival
of Santiago de Chile 2002
