What I really like about the Confluence concert series is that sometimes they do music that I love and sometimes they do stuff that’s completely unfamiliar to me and which I almost invariably enjoy.  Last night’s streamed concert came into the second category.  It was curated by Patricia O’Callaghan and featured the music of Astor Piazzolla who reinvented the tango and the Andean roots influenced music of Mercedes Sosa.  Tangos are great fun of course but I was more struck by the music of Sosa who spoke for the voiceless and oppressed of dictatorship Argentina in the same way that Victor Juara spoke for the Chilean underclass.  Fortunately for her she didn’t share his fate though she was forced into exile.  The music was interwoven with spoken texts from the likes of Borges read by Diego Matamoros and the visual art of Kevork Mourad.  All in all a very intriguing program.

So thanks to Patricia O’Callaghan, Payadora Tango Ensemble, The Gryphon Trio,
Anais Kelsey-Verdecchia, Andrew Downing, Robert Kortgaard and Larry Beckwith for an enjoyable and educational hour and a half.  The concert is available on Confluence’s Youtube channel until May 8th.