concert without borders 2020
BNAI’s Concert Without Borders 2020 was held virtually in two presentations.
The first was celebrated on September 15th, 2020 to coincide with Mexico's Independence Day.
The second concert was held on January 1st, 2021 with participants from Arizona, Sonora and Switzerland welcoming the new year!
No More Walls
Turn!
Dime Niño de Quién Eres?
Traditional Christmas Carol
Lyrics
Tell me, Child, where you come from,
all dressed in white?
“I come from the Virgin Mary
And the Holy Spirit.”
Resound with happiness
the songs of my land
and long live the Child of God
born on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve comes,
Christmas Eve goes.
And we will go
And will return no more.
Custodia
With words by Mexican poet Octavio Paz and music by Lori Keyne, this adult choral performance incorporates dance movements choreographed by Roberto Villa (Naco, MX) and Nahomi Bórquez (Agua Prieta, MX).
Participants include musicians and singers from Japan, Switzerland, Pennsylvania, Mexicali, Hermosillo, Agua Prieta and Arizona.
Japanese baritone opera singer Shingo Sudo, who was supposed to be present for the original concert, instead appeared as part of the virtual performance.
About Custodia
Octavio Paz was among Latin America’s most famous literary figures and a dominant force among Mexico’s cultural elite for decades. He wrote poetry, plays, essays, criticism, and biographies, and his interests included modern painting, linguistics, literary theory, history, and politics. His collection of essays, The Labyrinth of Solitude, defined machismo and the treacherous Malinche for generations of readers. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990 and many other prizes, he directed the journal, Vuelta, and several others. Paz was born in Mexico City in 1914 and died there in 1998. He was married for more than twenty years to the accomplished novelist Elena Garro and then to the Frenchwoman, Marie-José Tramini. He had one daughter, Helena Paz Garro. He traveled widely, in Berkeley and New York, then served as ambassador of Mexico in Paris and India, where the poem “Custodia” had its birth.
Taken from Underwood, Leticia Iliana. “AUTOMORPHIC STRUCTURES IN THE GRAMMATICAL SPACE OF ‘CUSTODIA.’” Dispositio, vol. 15, no. 40, 1990, pp. 27–51. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41491385. Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.
“Custodia” is part of an anthology, Ladera Este (Eastern Slope), influenced by Paz’s studies of Eastern religions. In the words of Ana Cornide*, “All is one, the erotic and the sacred, the East and the West, the poetic and the mythical, the form and the content, the signifier and the signified, the yes and the no, the masculine and the feminine, but without losing autonomy." The entire body of Paz’s work, where the images and themes (solitude, communion, desire, eroticism, the bridge, the other, the other bank, the fusion of opposites) disappear and reappear, moved by an internal rhythm, resembles “Custodia…”
“Custodia” represents reconciliation—our message for today’s world.
Beth Henson
*Ana Cornide is an Associate Professor in the Spanish Department at the University of Arizona
Shingo Sudo
Is a Japanese baritone singer, born in Wakayama prefecture, Japan. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kunitachi College of Music.
He won second place at the International Competition for Opera Singers “SPAZIO MUSICA” in Italy and was the winner of the International Valsesia Music competition.
In 2006, his brilliant performance in the 37th Competition for Singers of Italian Opera earned him the state’s Siena grand award. Shingo also received the highest prize and song award in the 42nd Japanese-Italian vocal competition.
Shingo is currently performing as part of The Fujiwara Opera Group and is an adjunct instructor at Kunitachi College of Music.
His solo debut CD, “ARIE Opera Arias” is now available through Sony music.
Custodia was officially released on this page and we are proud to announce that more than a dozen organizations from the US and Mexico are sharing it through their websites and social media platforms:
Mexican Consulate, Douglas, AZ: https://consulmex.sre.gob.mx/douglas
Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, MX: http://diplomaciacultural.mx/canal/douglas/
City of Naco, Sonora, MX: https://www.facebook.com/quimicalupitaduartemolinares
Cochise College, Cochise County, AZ: https://www.cochise.edu
U.S. Department of State: https://eca.state.gov/programs-and-initiatives
Arizona Commission for the Arts: https://azarts.gov
Onirica Productions, Bisbee, AZ: https://www.facebook.com/OniricaProductions
Centro de Atención al Migrante Exodus, Agua Prieta, Sonora, MX: https://www.facebook.com/camexodus
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Tucson: https://www.unamtucson.org
Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance: https://arizonapalestine.org/about.html
City of Bisbee, AZ: https://www.bisbeeaz.gov
City of Douglas, AZ: https://www.douglasaz.gov
City of Agua Prieta, Sonora: https://www.facebook.com/pantallasAP
Binational Migration Institute, University of Arizona: https://bmi.arizona.edu/
Center for Latin American Studies, University of Arizona: https://las.arizona.edu/
Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, University of Arizona: https://confluencenter.arizona.edu/
