Tonos del Sur, directed by Dr. Sarah Cranor, is comprised of historically-informed musicians who are passionate about sharing music from the Americas during colonization, especially lesser-known music in indigenous languages and by indigenous and anonymous composers. Tonos is particularly interested in championing the recently published complete remaining works of Santiago Billoni, chapelmaster at the Durango Cathedral, Mexico.
Tonos values partnerships with scholars and musicologists, to help bring to modern audiences pieces from across Latin American archives that have not been heard in hundreds of years, most recently with Dr. Paul Feller working with the Metropolitan Cathedral archive, in Chile. Tonos has presented 4 modern premieres of Feller’s transcriptions so far, and will bring at least 6 more of these villancicos to life next season.
Tonos also has a working partnership with Chiquitano Elders in Bolivia for pronunciation assistance with singing works from the Mission archives in Chiquitano-Besiró. A part of our budget is directly assigned to support the recording of audio files from these Elders- we are very grateful for their knowledge.
Tonos looks forward to expanding project-based collaborations, spanning geographical and interdisciplinary areas, especially addressing colonization and its relationship to music.
Learn More: https://www.sarahcranor.com/tonosdelsur