Vesper PR – Los Angeles CA, July 2023 – What can only be considered the climax of Cumbia Fever’s 7 year anniversary celebrations, on Sunday, July 2, 2023 over 4,000 music lovers packed Pershing Square for the birth of the Los Angeles Cumbia Festival. The success of this first annual event is sure to secure the partnership between Pershing Square and the Cumbia Fever DJs who curated the music for the free public celebration of the global pulse of cumbia. 

The packed Pershing Square was a declaration of relevancy of cumbia in our city, making the statement that cumbia deserves space in our parks, public spaces and premiere performance venues. People of all ages, ethnicities, and cultures, representing a phenomenal swath of the LA community, danced the night away to cumbia legend Vilma Diaz, the pioneers of Mexican cumbia/sonidero Grupo Soñador, and the future of Colombian cumbia, young vocalist Yeison Landero, who had the crowd cheering “Landero vive,” dispelling the myth that cumbia is the music of our grandparents and long gone artists.

Usually relegated to the margins of music venues in Los Angeles, due to corporate venue ticketing policies, cumbia music has thrived on an underground level with evangelists like the Cumbia Fever DJs consistently presenting a premium face to the genre with their weekly Thursday night cumbia parties. Their phenomenal past seven years of success has been the definitive proof that an audience for cumbia exists. The Los Angeles Cumbia Festival was an earth shattering proof of concept; that when positioned in first class performance spaces, these bands command large crowds with spending power. 

There were people as young as twenty one as well as people in their sixties and seventies dancing throughout the day and well into late evening. Couples, singles, and groups of friends, many speaking Spanish, but also many bilingual and non-Spanish speaking people were found at the event. The audience was a wonderfully diverse multicultural L.A. crowd. Latinos, Anglos, African Americans, AAPI, bi-racial and members of the LGBTQIA+1 community all got together under the cumbia flag to dance harmoniously, with not one incident to report other than people having a great time! 

“This was a massive inclusion moment that no one saw coming, not even us.” Says Ricky Garay of Cumbia Fever and producer of the Los Angeles Cumbia Festival. 

Garay continues. “Our real work at Cumbia Fever is in creating safe spaces for our community, places where anyone feels welcome, and you can bring your parents/elders if you would like. That family friendly setting was important for me because my earliest memories of cumbia are of songs playing in the background of family gatherings. Sunday gave us the opportunity to not only honor cumbia, but to also honor our entire city in a way that never really had been done before, it was special and it was humbling.”

After doing Cumbia Fever for seven years Garay knew that LA needed its own Cumbia festival, but not even he could have imagined the turnout in its first year. 

“Personally I have been to hundreds of very large live music shows, but I have never ever seen the entire crowd dancing nonstop in every available space at Pershing Square. I keep reliving the day and rewatching the videos. I am just so deeply grateful to everyone who came out and especially to the LA City Department of Parks and Rec which was so supportive of our concept.”- Ricky Garay producer of Cumbia Fever and Los Angeles Cumbia Festival 

About Cumbia Fever

Cumbia Fever is a Mucho Studios production created by Mucho founder Ricky Garay. Conceptually, Cumbia Fever is a weekly, Global Cumbia dance party, featuring the resident Cumbia Fever DJs/Producers: Rayes, Ricky Guapo, Palomo, Pump Police and Soulcab. These legendary DJs take guests on a global and time travelling tour of the Cumbia genre, under the guise of a dance party at a nightclub.  Cumbia Fever started as a live music event at the King King in Hollywood in 2015, but when the King King closed, they transitioned to downtown L.A. hot spot, La Cita Bar and have been there for seven years, every Thursday.

Over the past seven years they have travelled the country DJing in different cities, produced larger weekend events and most notably produced a Remix EP for multi Grammy award winning L.A. based group, La Santa Cecilia. Aside from producing the first annual Los Angeles Cumbia Festival on July 2nd, 2023 this summer, Cumbia Fever is set to release their first three original songs , produced for use in the upcoming PBS short film “El Paisa”. To be released under their newly minted record label, MUCHO RECORDS.  

About Pershing Square

Pershing Square is operated by the Department of Recreation and Parks and is located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles at 532 S Olive Street.

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L.A. Profundo: 30 Years of Redefining Chicano Rock. The 30th anniversary of East LA’s iconic Grammy Award winning & socially conscious Chicano rock group Quetzal. Performing live August 19th at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes with special guests La Marisoul, Cesar Castro and others.

Vesper PR – Los Angeles, July 2023 – Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of East LA Chicano rock group Quetzal with a free concert August 19, 2023 at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. 

Led by Quetzal Flores and Martha Gonzalez, Quetzal is an ensemble of highly talented musicians which first joined forces thirty years ago for the goal of creating good music that tells the tale of their community; the social, cultural, political, and musical struggles of their community. 

Born from the aftermath of 1990’s Los Angeles, Quetzal has persistently challenged the music industry over the commerce of music. A Grammy-award winning artist in their own right, their collective discography reflects the legacy of music from which they are born while honoring the stories, ideologies and value systems of change-making. Deeper still, Quetzal has been collecting, honoring, and documenting peoples’ struggles and triumphs with their songs and albums.  Their lyric, their music, their engagement in Los Angeles is reflected in their energy and the sonic experiences we receive as audience members. 

30th Anniversary Concert

Celebrate this uniquely Los Angeles band with a collaborative evening of musical performances and visuals that take the audience on a musical journey spanning 30 years and multiple genres. Quetzal’s 30th anniversary at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes also includes art installations grounded in legacy. ‘Altar Maestras’ Ofelia Esparza & Rosana Esparza-Aherns will create an altar installation to further activate the holistic approach of the celebration and compliment Quetzal’s musical catalogue as a whole. 

Community activism being at the root of Quetzal, the local arts community gives its love and appreciation back to Quetzal with special guest performances. The show will also engage the audience with video of the band across the years including time in Japan, Chiapas, Veracruz, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most significantly’ Quetzal remembers and honors their deep collaboration with renowned LA based artist Jose Ramirez on over 12 album covers.

Special Guests: La Marisoul, Ramon Gutierrez, Lucia Gutierrez, Cesar Castro, Rocio Marron, Dante Pascuzzo, Pepe Carlos, Miguel “Oso”Ramírez, Irene Diaz, Lencho Martinez, Gabriel Gonzalez, Quincy McCrary.

Who: Quetzal 30th Anniversary Celebration 
When: August 19, 2023
Where: La Plaza de Cultura y Artes – 501 N Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Cost: Free
Info: https://lapca.org/event/
Parking: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes 

About Chicano Rock Group Quetzal

A relentlessly innovative Grammy award-winning ensemble that narrates the social, cultural and political stories of humanity. Describing the Quetzal’s influences, Dr. Alex Chavez states, “You hear students of Chicano rock, rhythm and blues, JB funk, Cuban batá, punk, and Motown soul. You hear a band that has cut its teeth organizing, that has worked to fight forms of oppression in the communities they are connected to. And in pursuit of forging these creative and political bridges, you hear artists who are at the epicenter of the transnational world of son jarocho.”

Quetzal’s live shows are filled with moments of tenderness, fervor and vivid storytelling that transport the audience into a world of affirmation and belonging. They have graced stages across the US, Canada, Asia and Mexico for three decades. Recognized by notable institutions such as the Library of Congress and The Kennedy Center, the traveling exhibit “American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music” sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, featured Quetzal as leaders and innovators of Chicano music. This feat coupled with their Grammy Award winning album on Smithsonian Folkways label “Imaginaries” (2013) marks the importance of their past and ongoing work. The relevance of Quetzal’s music and lyrics has been noted in a range of publications, from dissertations to scholarly books. As a testament to the body of music and community work Quetzal has accomplished on and off the stage, in the summer of 2017 Gonzalez’s tarima (stomp box) and zapateado dance shoes were acquired by the National Museum of American History and are now on permanent display.

Upper Canada Choristers Celebrate Cantemos at 15, Featuring Old Favorites, A Premiere And Visual Delights

For 15 years, the accomplished Latin vocal ensemble Cantemos has been brightening the Toronto soundscape with music in Spanish, Portuguese, Latin and native languages of the Americas. Comprising singers mostly from Venezuelan members of the Upper Canada Choristers, the ensemble – along with its parent choir – has commissioned and introduced many new works to its audiences.

Friday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m., the Upper Canada Choristers and Cantemos, conducted by Laurie Evan Fraser, with pianist Hye Won (Cecilia) Lee, celebrate Cantemos’s 15^th anniversary in Our Voices Together: Corazones al Unisono. The spirited mixed-media event features a new work, old favorites, visual art and dance.

The performance takes place at Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto. Tickets, $25, can ordered via Eventbrite or purchased at the door. Children 16 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Mask-wearing is strongly recommended. Information is available on the choir’s website, or by calling 416-256-0510 or emailing info@uppercanadachoristers.org.  

Audiences may also watch the live stream through the choir’s website or directly on YouTube. There is no charge for the stream, but donations are welcome.

Highlight is the world premiere of El Pajaro Que Espero (The Bird I Await), commissioned from Venezuelan composer César Alejandro Carrillo, whose music is often presented on Cantemos programs. Written to poetry by Carrillo’s wife, Laura Morales Balza, it is the latest in a series of songs dedicated to their son, Simon, who died young a few years ago. According to Carrillo, “The poem is based on the idea of the bird, from a poetic point of view, linked to migration and nature.”

Performed against a filmed, kaleidoscopic background of visual arts, the concert features music created for the UCC and Cantemos through commissions and collaborations, along with other favorites. Among them are Carrillo’s La Rosa de los Vientos, written for Cantemos, to a poem by ensemble member Jacinto Salcedo.  Salcedo’s lyrics are also sung in Cantando Flores by Canadian composer and world music specialist Stephen Hatfield, with shadow puppetry created by the Spanish-based team Cia. Olveira Salcedo.

There are also two selections by Canadian Steven Chatman – Voices of Earth (poetry by Archibald Lampman), the first work commissioned by the Upper Canada Choristers, and excerpts from his second UCC commission, Teasdale Love Songs (poems by Sara Teasdale).   

Also written for the choir by Canadians and on the program are Mark Sirett’s Two Songs of Peace and David Tomlinson’s Inspiration. Adding to the musical variety are Canadian Sid Robinovitch’s Noche de Lluvia, a choral arrangement by Liliana Cangiano of Astor Pizzolla’s Chiquilin de Bachin,a lively Colombian merecumbe, and Tleycantimo Choquiliya by Mexican-Portuguese composer and organist Gaspar Fernandes (1566-1629).  

To conclude, the choir’s anthem Blessing – Bendicion, written by the choir’s Laurie Evan Fraser, Cantemos founder and UCC co-founder with Jacqui Atkin, pays homage to traditions from the main choir and Cantemos. With texts from the Irish blessing and a traditional children’s prayer known throughout Latin America, this song highlights the commonalities between cultures. A dancer will perform to it on screen.

Award-winning artist Camila Salcedo will be seen during some of the Cantemos selections, creating an artwork in a time-lapse video. 

Laurie Evan Fraser is proud of having formed Cantemos in 2008 and of including it within the main choir. As she says, “The members, who are mostly from South America, have inspired the rest of us with a different cultural perspective. The more we learn about each other’s musical traditions, the smaller – and richer – the world gets.”

The concert is sponsored by The Mills Team, Royal Lepage Signature Realty.

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