Madrigal in Machu Picchu

The 'Madrigal - Marin Constantin' national chamber choir has filmed a video in Machu Picchu, a world premier for choir music

Daniela Budu, 18.03.2024, 13:50

The ‘Madrigal – Marin Constantin’ National Chamber Choir is, for the first time, on a tour of Peru, until March 20, marking the celebration of 85 years of Romanian-Peruvian diplomatic relations and the Romanian Embassy in Lima taking over the Presidency of the Francophonie Festival Peru 2024. On this occasion, the Madrigal Choir marked a world first, filming a video in the citadel of Machu Picchu, one of the most beautiful and mysterious ancient vestiges in the world.

It’s the second episode of the project ‘Romanian contemporary music in universal ancient spaces’: ‘Machu Picchu – Choral Suite from the Land of Oas”, based on the work signed by the Romanian composer Dariu Pop. The first episode of the series was filmed at the Dacian site of Sarmizegetusa (Hunedoara county) and was released on January 15, Romania’s National Culture Day. During this tour, the Madrigal Choir also released the discographic material ‘National Anthems of South American Countries’.The product contains the most recent recordings of the Choir directed by Anna Ungureanu and Cezar Verlan – the official anthems of the states on the South American continent.

Also under the baton of conductors Anna Ungureanu and Cezar Verlan, it gave five concerts and recitals at the Embassy of Romania and in the Congress of the Republic of Peru, in cathedrals and theaters in Lima, in Cusco – the former capital of the Inca Empire, and in Machu Picchu. The Choir Tour, carried out at the invitation of the Romanian Embassy in the Republic of Peru and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Cultural Institute, is a premiere for the ensemble, which is in South America for the first time.

The music of the Madrigal Choir, however, is not unknown to South America, especially to the choral movement on the continent. In 1983, maestro Marin Constantin, the founder of Madrigal, was invited to give choral training to students from several South American countries at the Conservatory of Ibague (Tolima), Colombia. Following the success of the courses held there, Marin Constantin was awarded the title of professor and Honorary Director of the Conservatory in the region.

Founded in 1963, the ‘Madrigal – Marin Constantin’ National Chamber Choir has become a landmark of musical life and national and international cultural diplomacy. Its repertoire is focused on the renaissance, pre-classical and classical music, romanticism, Byzantine music and contemporary Romanian and universal works. Since 2011, the Madrigal Choir has been running the Cantus Mundi National Program, the largest program of social integration through music for children in Romania, initiated by the renowned conductor Ion Marin. The program, which currently brings together over 2,000 choirs and almost 70,000 children from the country and the diaspora, was formalized at government level in 2014, with the establishment of the Directorate of the ‘Madrigal – Marin Constantin’ National Chamber Choir. (MI)