Music of the Americas: Songs and Sound Art

Wednesday, March 25, 10 am

Chilean pianist, singer-songwriter, weaver, and seamstress Valentina Peralta, recipient of the 2024 Violeta Parra Sandoval Regional Arts Prize for Music in Ñuble, is a graduate of the Escuela Experimental de Música Jorge Peña Hen in La Serena. There, she studied piano with Ariadna Colli Hurtado and percussion with Raimundo Garrido Muñoz, and was a member of the symphony orchestra and chamber choir at Universidad de La Serena. She later studied music production at Universidad Vicente Pérez Rosales in Santiago, and has participated in important festivals throughout the Americas.

Her work uses music as a platform to develop a critical awareness of life in the Global South. Describing herself as a "song artisan," Valentina sees creation as primarily about work and connecting with people, as well as a way to connect to the daily lives of those who work on the docks or in commerce. 

Peralta writes about her song "El Sol": "It is a song composed in 2012 that has gained ever-increasing resonance, as the passing years bring the proliferation of megaprojects that threaten territories and their communities across the continent. The phrase 'they are going to charge us even to breathe' has become a reality against which many of us defend ourselves on a daily basis. Presented in a hybrid set that integrates piano, vocals, field recordings, and samples from key figures in the Mapuche world, Berta Quintreman and Joel Maripil, this song invites us to reflect, even as we dance."

Thursday, March 26, 10 am

Camila y Silvio is a Chilean duo formed by Silvio Rozzi and Camila Soria. Their music is rooted in South American folklore, offering a contemporary interpretation of traditional genres from the Andean region. 

In 2019, they released their first album, En el borde de la noche, for which they were awarded Best Folk Music Artist at the 2020 Pulsar Awards, the most important recognition in the Chilean music industry. In 2023, they released Piedra Azul, which blends traditional Andean folklore and contemporary music, creating a bridge between traditional roots music and new generations. They have performed on various national stages and, since 2022, have performed in England, South Korea, Spain, and across Latin America. 

From Santiago, they sent us videos of songs included in Piedra Azul, an album that honors water and its journey through the world and through all life forms. Today, we share "Piedra y chagual."

Friday, March 27, 10 am

Peruvian-Chilean multimedia artist Renzo Filinich currently works at the Origins Centre at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. His work explores the intersections of art, technology, and philosophy, focusing on how sound, digital media, and perception are shaped by cosmotechnics and post-anthropocentric thought from a Latin American perspective. He investigates how emerging technologies—particularly AI, simulation, and cybernetic processes—participate in processes of individuation and transform cultural and sensory worlds. 

One of his current interdisciplinary projects,Quantum Echoes of Humanity, utilizes AI and anthropological data to reimagine the Anthropocene from the Global South. His recent academic publications include “Creativity, Coevolution, and Coproduction: The Machine as Art and as Artist” (2024), which reflects on machines as aesthetic agents, and “The Process of Individuation in Hybrid Ecologies: On the Relationship Between Art, Machines, and Natural Systems” (2024), a study of relational techno-aesthetics in natural and artificial systems. His work has been featured internationally, contributing to the dialogue among media arts, digital aesthetics, and interdisciplinary research.

From Johannesburg, he sent us two pieces. Today we share "Echoes in the Machine," an improvisation session oriented toward the listening of a hybrid ecology—a sonic ecology in which the organic sound of machines intervenes, simulating natural sounds. 

The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation.

The 2025–2026 series is also supported, in part, by the Howard Gilman Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, The Augustine Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and The Amphion Foundation.