Musical Instruments of Nueva Canción: Sounds of Resistance in Latin America

Amid the political turmoil and violence of Chilean politics in the 1960s, musicians looked to folk forms and Indigenous instruments to create a new type of popular music: Nueva Canción. With populist themes and a fusion of styles, Nueva Canción quickly spread beyond Chile throughout Latin America as a protest movement against fascist dictatorships, military regimes, and colonial intervention.

With generous support from the U-M Arts Initiative and the Virginia Martin Howard Lecture Series Endowment, the Stearns Collection presents a mini-conference on the instruments, music, and social significance of Nueva Canción.

Free and open to the public; light refreshments provided.

U-M Lecturer Ryan Bodiford will present a talk entitled “Signs of Defiance: Instruments as Ideological Indices in Chilean Nueva Canción.” Professor Emerita Nancy Morris of Temple University will follow with her talk “Musical Resistance and Activism: 50 Years of New Song in Chile.” Maria Castillo, flutist and Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Tennessee- Knoxville, will discuss and play recordings of Nueva Canción that she grew up listening to.

Attendees are also invited to visit an exhibit featuring the Indigenous instruments of Nueva Canción on the third floor of the Moore Building.