Accompanied by Dat Garcia, Viola brings a beautiful collage of Latin American music and rhythms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Philadelphia, PA – October 14, 2019
Sofia Viola with Dat Garcia
Part of Philadelphia Music Week 2019
Friday, October 18, 2019, 7:30pm
Teatro Esperanza
4261 North 5th Street, Philadelphia PA 19140
Free parking available in the Bristol Street lot.
Few cities can match the colorful, varied, and unpredictable underground music scene of Buenos Aires, and no singer gives a better sense of that Buenos Aires music scene than Sofia Viola. Blending the traditional and grounded directness of folk singing with the vast emotional palette of jazz, Viola’s songs reach deep into Argentina’s multi-layered cultural heritage.
Dat Garcia captivates audiences with her powerful stage presence, innovative songwriting, and eclectic presence. Mixing trip-hop with folk and cumbia with drum and bass, Argentine folktronics takes a twist with Garcia’s powerful lyrics and music. In her world, the traditional and the modern live together in a groove and she invites you all to come in and take a listen.
Conversation and Audience Q&A immediately following the performance
Tickets $10 Adults
Free admission for students 18 and under.
Tickets & Season Information are available at: TeatroEsperanza.us
Teatro Esperanza is Esperanza’s venue for Latin Arts and Culture in the heart of Hunting Park, North Philadelphia. All performances at Teatro Esperanza are located inside Esperanza’s main building at 4261 North 5th Street, Philadelphia PA 19140. Free parking available in the Bristol Street lot.
For more information or press passes please contact Joy Huertas at (215) 324-0746 ext. 480 or jhuertas@esperanza.us .
Download official press release here: Sofia Viola_PR Final
ARTISTS BIOS
Sofia Viola
Sofia Viola takes the stage embracing her guitar, or her charangón, and performs her songs which drift from tango to vibrations of the Andes, from milonga to happy cumbia, from rock to vallenato, from chamamé to the blues, in a show that is pure blood traction and interpretative power. Her provocative sense of humor makes the audience shine and together they start a journey through the roots of the continent to expand joy, sorrow, dance, and clamor with the characters and landscapes that inhabit their songs.
Sofia is a free spirit and a joyful performer with a winsome personality that is both, contagious and healing. Her music is a beautiful collage made from pieces of Latin America showcasing different rhythms that stay with you all day long
An Argentinian singer, composer, and actress with an overflowing talent, Viola composes songs in which she professes her unconditional love for Latin American folklore in all its dimensions and tells micro-stories that speak of love, ecology, junk food and universal themes with her particular vision and grace. Her style was formed through suburban tango, but she also draws from rock music and the Argentinian “Tropical Wave” style.
At only 29 years old, with 13 years on the stage, she has toured Argentina and many neighboring countries such as Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. Viola also toured Europe, where she has played in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Pirineos, and Berlin.
Throughout her journey, she was received and loved by audiences of all ages. Her talent on stage is at the service of the muses, with an indie-folk touch in tangos, milongas, cumbias, vallenatos, boleros, blues, among many other rhythms she absorbs and composes.
In 2019, she toured Brazil during carnival, performing in large festivals like Psicodalia (Curitiba) and Rec Beat (Recife). She’s currently on her Gira Otoño, Autumn Tour, which began in Mexico and Spain has extended her tour into North America, playing in venues throughout Canada and the United States.
Sofia Viola, Ser Tu Perro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJABNq1kkS4
Dat García
A voice emerges, materializing, curing. Analog feelings, ancestral glitch. Along the sun’s cosmic belt, the renewal of Argentine folktronics takes another twist: the movement – regional, continental and global – has emerged with a strong female presence in the Buenos Aires scene. Enter Dat García, one of Argentina’s freshest and most captivating female artists.
Maleducada (Un or poorly educated) is García’s way of expressing and exorcizing, through song, the bad emotional upbringing common among so many young people of her generation. The children of adults censored during the difficult times of 1980’s Argentina, when military dictatorship silenced, oppressed, and even murdered many of those dedicated to artistic or political expression. While women were brought up to be respectable housewives and good mothers, the youth of an empowered generation was born alongside democracy and today they walk the streets of Buenos Aires.
García is one of the spokeswomen and storytellers of the new women’s movement that questions traditional values and emphasizes body consciousness to construct a new more equal society. “We weren’t taught to be free to feel, nor were we taught to eat well or look after our bodies. Researching this made me realize that we are emotional machines, and that can translate into health or disease,” she said. The title of the album, Maleducada, came from the healing process she went through while making the album. After being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, she was motivated to investigate the power of the emotional over the physiological and expression as a healing therapy.
Dat Garcia comes in to change the paradigm and make sure women’s voices are heard, telling powerful, profound stories that welcome us to her world of folk-futurist sounds and aesthetics. Until now the digital folklore scene was almost exclusively a men’s club, Garcia is only the second woman ever signed to the ZZK record label.
Dat García grew up in Monte Grande, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and from a young age, she was involved in Argentine folklore music. In 2013, she immersed herself in digital music, opening up a world of tools for expressing her inner sonic universe, with the help of Pedro Canale a/k/a Chancha via Circuito. There, Dat started to flirt with the idea that styles ranging from chacarera to trip-hop, sounds of synths, charango, and flutes could all be put together. Her powerful music is composed with lyrics that invite the listener into her world and a groove in which the timeless Latino folklore gene persists.
Dat forms part of this new generation of musicians who explore their roots, manifesting in new ideas, with new technologies. She has a timeless vision of what folklore is, one that speaks of a being and a feeling. “You don’t need to make music in an adobe hut in the middle of the Pampas to feel that it’s folklore. There’s a ton of stuff we do with a weight of tradition behind it that we don’t see. And a lot of it comes from everyday life, from emotion, from the feeling of the people.”
Dat Garcia, Camino Sobre Piedras: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cpdbL8lrww
Sofia Viola with Dat Garcia
Part of Philadelphia Music Week 2019
Friday, October 18, 2019, 7:30pm
Conversation and Audience Q&A immediately following the performance
Tickets $10 Adults
Free admission for students 18 and under.
Tickets & Season Information are available at: TeatroEsperanza.us
Download official press release here: Sofia Viola_PR Final
About Esperanza. Esperanza is a national community-based social benefit organization founded in 1986 by Rev. Luis Cortés and the Hispanic Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity with the biblical mandate to serve and advocate for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40). Beginning with a local initiative, with programs targeted to address the unmet needs of North Philadelphia’s Hispanic community, Rev. Cortés is now sought by national and international leaders alike on issues of economic and workforce development, housing, immigration, and education. Under his leadership, Esperanza has grown from a small operation to a $40 million organization with more than 450 employees. Follow us on social media @esperanza_us on Twitter and Instagram, EsperanzaUSA on Facebook and Esperanza US on YouTube.
About Teatro Esperanza.
Guided by Esperanza’s core values of faith, integrity, and excellence, Esperanza Arts Center is the center for Latino performing arts in the Philadelphia region, spotlighting the rich spectrum of traditions from Central and South America and the Caribbean, as well as other cultures from around the world, creating positive transformational experiences for students, families, and attendees of all ages through the arts. For more information visit www.esperanzaartscenter.us
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