CLAEM
The American Music Research Center and the Department of Musicology will host Rutgers University musicology professor, Eduardo Herrera, on Monday, Oct 26 at 1 pm (MST) for his presentation, “Americanism as Musical Strategy: From Pan Americanism to Latin Americanism.” Dr. Herrera’s research reveals the transformational work of graduates from the Centro Latino Americano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM, 1962–1971) who reconfigured pan-national discourses of Latin Americanism into a united, regional community that strategically positioned itself in the classical music tradition.
Graduates of CLAEM spent two years with composers from different Central and South American countries comparing information from classical music with what was being done in neighboring countries. Herrera noted, “This simple condition, being able to spend time together knowing each other personally and musically, marked a significant difference in the creation of regional networks.”
“CLAEM was a place for the exchange of ideas, materials, and the creation of friendships and solidarity networks, much like many other meeting places for classical composers during the twentieth century—the Darmstadt Summer Courses or the Warsaw Autumn and Donaueschingen Festivals, for example,“ disclosed Dr. Herrera. “However, unlike them, the extended two-year duration of the study program at CLAEM created a unique situation for profound exchange among some of the most talented composers of the whole region. The friendships generated and the multi-national character of CLAEM facilitated the adoption of a regional identity for a ‘Latin American avant-garde’ in an art world that was largely European and U.S.-centric.”
Herrera (pictured left) met with many of the composers he writes about and shared that he, “spent time with them and got to understand how they made sense of what it meant to be an avant-garde composer during that decade.” He added, “I learned more from them than I could from any archive.” Herrera also credits the Di Tella Institute at Di Tella University in Argentina, the The Rockefeller Archive Center in New York, and the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Germany as sources for his research.
Herrera’s talk is part of the Musicology & Music Theory Colloquium series at CU Boulder’s College of Music, a series of presentations to faculty, students, and the community that features leading national and international researchers in music theory and ethnomusicology.
Dr. Herrera recently published Elite Art Worlds: Philanthropy, Latin Americanism, and Avant-Garde Music (Oxford University Press, 2020) and is currently working on two more book projects, Sounding Fandom: Chanting, Masculinity, and Violence in Argentine Soccer Stadiums and Soccer Sounds: Transnational Stories of the Beautiful Game.