“Fandango Barroco” features Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, a 5-member instrumental and vocal ensemble from Mexico. Bringing together the sound world of the Hispanic baroque guitar and the music of Mexican and Latin American contemporary culture, Tembembe explores the similarities between the instruments and practices of these two traditions. Expect a riveting performance including song and dance that brings alive the festive spirits of both the Hispanic fandango of the 17th century and contemporary traditional fandango.

Tembembe Ensamble Continuo

The Tembembe Ensemble Continuo’s vision is to seek out, recreate, and share what intimately connects Baroque music with traditional music, both Mexican-specific and Latin American. They do this by breaking down historical and imaginary boundaries that have come to separate these worlds over time, thus bringing to bare new possibilities of appreciation, comprehension, and truly novel interpretation of this flourishing music.

Tembembe has tasked itself with bringing together the music of the Hispanic Baroque guitar and the music of Mexican and Latin American contemporary culture. The group explores the similarities between the instruments and the practices of each of these traditions, presenting all aspects of performance including music, song, and dance that bring alive the festive spirits of both the Hispanic fandango of the 17th century and contemporary traditional fandango.

Members of Tembembe are graduates of the National University (UNAM) in Mexico City, as well as having completed their studies in other music institutions in Mexico, Colombia, France, and the United States. Today they teach at the UNAM and the Centro Ollin Yoliztli. They organize workshops aimed at reconstructing and interpreting traditional instruments, as well as fandango jam sessions in the Morelos state communities. The Ensemble has been featured at numerous venues in Mexico, the Americas, Europe and Asia. They have recorded for UDC (Mexico), Sony BMG Deutsche harmonia mundi (Germany), and AliaVox (Spain).

Musicians from Tembembe Ensamble Continuo

Ada Coronel: vocals, jarana
Ulises Martínez: violin, jaranas, leona, vocals
Enrique Barona: jaranas, huapanguera, leona, percussion, vocals
Leopoldo Novoa: guitarra de son, marimbol, tiple, arpa llanera
Eloy Cruz: Baroque guitar, baroque jarana, theorbo