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Chilean born, Latin American and Cari -bbean Cultural Society president and

founder, Professor Juan R Monroy, talked tome about the arduous but rewarding task ofbringing classical musicians from all over theworld to the UK.

There is a commonly used phrase in LatinAmerica taken from the famous Colombiansinger and ‘King of the Tango’ Carlos Gardel’ssong Volver, which asserts that Veinte años noes nada (twenty years is nothing). Well, forLACCS twenty five years seems like no time atall!

Senor Monroy, who studied history at Uni -v ersity in Chile, has a lifelong and imm enselystrong interest in music: a talented guitarist,he was astonished to discover that the classicalmusic of Latin America and the Caribbeanwas virtually unknown in Britain when hearrived here in the ’70s. He det er mined to dosomething about this deficiency and the resultwas the founding of LACCS. The first Festivalof Latin American and Caribbean Culturetook place in September 1984 and since thenthe Society has done notable work over thepast twenty five seasons and LACCS concertsare now some of the most important andinnovative fixtures of the London season.

A thoroughly enjoyable raconteur Juantold me the tale of how nylon guitar stringscame into being. Luthier, Albert Augustine,and guitarist Andrés Segovia engineered theearly development of nylon guitar strings in1947. At first DuPont’s, who were the leadingplastics manufacturer at the time, were scep -tical that plastic strings could be made butAugustine persisted and proved them wrong.Today his strings grace the guitars of mostclassical guitars. Monroy himself, after seeingplastic strings for the first time as a youngster,rushed out and bought a fishing line to try onhis guitar!

Professor Monroy was able to point out tome many of the ‘firsts’ that LACCS hasengineered to enable London concert goers tounderstand and appreciate South Americanmusic. “LACCS was the first organisation toinclude in its concert programmes a newrepertoire and not just that of Segovia”, he

told me. “For the first time, in 1987, CarlosBarbosa-Lima performed a full concert ofBrazilian classical music at the Wigmore Halland then at St John’s, Smith Square.”

“Another example”, he enthused, “was thatwe were able to première Ariel Ramirez’s MisaCriolla at the Royal Festival Hall in 1994, withits composer in attendance.” I, for one, amgrateful for that, as I just love this music.“Another important point to make”, Juanenergetically points out, “is that althoughMisa Criolla was renowned internationallyand had its première in Buenos Aires in 1964,it had to wait 30 years before its firstperformance in London!”

Other ‘firsts’ were the celebration of thecentenary of the birth of the Brazilian com -poser Heitor Villa-Lobos at St John’s SmithSquare, the first concert of Mexican sym -phonic music at the Barbican, with the RoyalPhilharmonic Orchestra, having the EnglishChamber Orchestra present a number ofconcerts of Latin American music; and in theRoyal Festival Hall LACCS introduced themusic of Eduardo Falú, Francisco Migone,Radamés Gnattali, Antonio Carlos Jobim andLaurindo Almeida, with the great Brazilianguitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima among many

others. Another resounding success was thecelebration of 100 years of tango, with theorchestra of Mariano Mores and its 1997première at the Royal Festival Hall with morethan 100 musicians, dancers and chorus, agreat musical and cultural spectacle that is stillfondly remembered.

Today, the energetic Juan Monroy andLACCS have expanded both their artists andmusic from its early Latin American andCaribbean borders to world-wide. From Slov -enia to Egypt: from Finland to Czech o -slovakia, musicians can be grateful to LACCSfor their exposure to London concert aud -iences, and London audiences can be gratefulfor hearing exciting music and musicians fromother cultures on their own doorstep.

Should funding and facility presentthemselves, Juan would be happy to reverse hissuccess and take English music and musiciansand introduce them to South American aud -iences. Now there’s a challenge for the cham -pions of home grown music and talent – talkto Professor Monroy and make it happen!Happy Anniversary LACCS, may there bemany more. ■

www.laccs.com See review on page 50

Judith Monk talks about

25 years of

LACCS

Juan R Monroy

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