Wheaton Conversations:
A Window to Andean Traditions – Music & Instruments from the Andes Mountains with Pepe Santana

Watch the recording from Dec. 8, 2022 above

Join us for an engaging conversation and live demonstration of Andean music and instruments with Mr. Pepe Santana. An Ecuadorian-born musician and a teaching master artist, Santana is involved in the sacred musical traditions of the Andes Mountains. Santana has an extensive collection and plays over two dozen percussion, wind, and string instruments. During his presentation, he will explore the history and geography of the Andes through music and traditional practices. Since music accompanies the Andean people from birth to death, Pepe will address its role as an integral part of their ritual and dance cultural heritage. 

Traditionally, panpipe music plays during processions, religious and political events, festivals, weddings, burials, and dancing rituals. Today this music continues to be part of important festivals such as Inti Raymi (Celebration of the Southern winter solstice), Q’oyllur Riti (Snow Star Festival), and challa ritual offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth) or wasipichay ritual (inauguration of a new house). String instruments like charangos, mandolins, and guitars vary from country to country and tell a different story of how indigenous music was influenced during colonization. New music genres evolved but continued to co-exist with the old ones in the present-day cultural heritage of the Andean people.

Conversaciones de Wheaton – Una ventana a las tradiciones andinas: Música e Instrumentos de la Cordillera de los Andes con Pepe Santana

Vía Zoom el jueves 8 de diciembre de 2022
6 p.m. EDT

Únase a nosotros para una conversación interesante y una demostración en vivo de música e instrumentos andinos con el Sr. Pepe Santana. Músico nacido en Ecuador y maestro de la enseñanza, Santana está involucrado en las tradiciones musicales sagradas de la Cordillera de los Andes. Santana tiene una extensa colección y toca más de dos docenas de instrumentos de percusión, viento y cuerda. Durante su presentación, explorará la historia y la geografía de los Andes a través de la música y las prácticas tradicionales. Dado que la música acompaña al pueblo andino desde el nacimiento hasta la muerte, Pepe explicará su papel como parte integral de su patrimonio cultural ritual y dancístico.

Tradicionalmente, la música de flauta de pan se reproduce durante procesiones, eventos religiosos y políticos, festivales, bodas, entierros y bailes rituales. Hoy en día esta música sigue siendo parte de importantes festividades como el Inti Raymi (Celebración del solsticio de invierno del Sur), Q’oyllur Riti (Festival de la Estrella de la Nieve), las ofrendas rituales ch’alla a la Pachamama (Madre Tierra) o el ritual del wasipichay (inauguración de una casa nueva). Los instrumentos de cuerda como charangos, mandolinas y guitarras varían de un país a otro y cuentan una historia diferente de cómo la música indígena fue influenciada durante la colonización. Los nuevos géneros musicales evolucionaron, pero continuaron coexistiendo con los antiguos en el patrimonio cultural actual de los pueblos andinos.

This event is part of “Wheaton Conversations,” a virtual series highlighting select artists with ties to WheatonArts!
To see the full schedule of conversations, Click Here.

Programming for this Wheaton Conversation event is made possible by The Down Jersey Folklife Center, a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and WheatonArts, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional project support was made possible by grants from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional project support is provided by the Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission.