presents:
In the footsteps of Gustavo Durán
The songbooks of a 20th century Renaissance man
Gustavo Durán is one of the most enigmatic figures of the last century. Born in Barcelona in 1906, he trained as a pianist, composer, and early ethnomusicologist, moving in the circles of Lorca, Dalí, and Buñuel at the Residencia de Estudiantes. During the Spanish Civil War, he served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Republican Army before exile forced him to leave Spain in 1939—never to return. His remarkable journey led him to conspire against Juan Domingo Perón, befriend Hemingway, become a target of McCarthy, and even bring drinkable water to a small Greek town, where he is buried as a local hero.
For this concert, Jonatan joins Galician guitarist and researcher Samuel Diz, a leading expert in the music of the Spanish Civil War and exile. Together, they will bring to life three songbooks Durán compiled between 1944 and 1963—a collection of songs he played and sang in his many homes across the Americas, spanning 12th-century Spanish courtly melodies to modern Peruvian yaravís, drawn from an astonishing range of sources.
Join us for an evening of music as extraordinary and unclassifiable as Durán himself!
Jonatan Alvarado, voice
Samuel Diz, guitar