In December of 2023 one of my original instruments was installed at the Baltimore Museum of Art, in the new Wall of Wonder; an interactive educational installation in the Patricia and Mark Joseph Education Center.

The Wall of Wonder features digital displays of artworks and artists, discovery drawers with samples of artists’ materials and artworks to touch, and other interactive elements.

My double flute with snake motif sits in a discovery drawer with the theme “Play with Clay” and can be experienced through sight, touch and sound.  As part of the display there is a button that can be pushed to play an audio of a short composition I created with the instrument.

I'm excited for this instrument to be part of this initiative, which speaks to museums exploring new ways of engaging visitors of all ages, and involving other ways of perceiving and understanding art.
 

From 2021-2024 I received three commissions to recreate historical musical instruments that are being stewarded in the Walters Art Museum's Art of the Americas collection. 

As an instrument-maker, I received my training in a master's program at the National University of Argentina, where we learned to build musical instruments through recreating historic instruments like ocarinas, multiple flutes and whistling bottles, among others.  This formation, in addition to my experience as a soloist with the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies, where I performed with many different kinds of ancient instruments, has given me a profound understanding of the acoustic systems, construction, and techniques of playing many little-known ceramic instruments.

I began working with curatorial and conservation staff at the Walters Art Museum in 2019, to research ceramic whistles and flutes of the ancient Americas. The Walters has a number of ancient ocarinas, flutes, and other aerophone instruments from different parts of the Prehispanic Americas in their collection, however, in an art museum they were understood largely on the basis of their visual qualities.

Working replicas allow for much more complex research into the sonic qualities of these objects without extensive handling or alteration of delicate artifacts; some of which date back over 1,000 years.  Using in depth visual analysis, detailed measurements, and x-radiography, these historic recreations are built and sculpted to be as identical to the original instruments as possible, both in function, form, and iconography.  These replicas will allow the museum to present works to the general public in a way that does not only show their visual qualities, but will be able to present the original artifacts as the authentic, creative sound-making, multipurpose objects that they were in antiquity. In this way, the museum will offer a more accurate view of the participatory, communal rituals of the past. 

These historical recreations will be utilized in exhibition, demonstrations, and educational programming in connection with the permanent installation of the Art of the Americas exhibition, which is scheduled to open in 2025. 

Composition for synth, found natural instruments, handcrafted horn and flutes, and voice.  For this piece I played original instruments: Heron Horn and Ancestor's Double Flute, as well as an historic recreation of a rare type of flute from the Pre-Columbian culture Jama-Coaque (of present-day Ecuador).  The piece was recorded, composed and produced using Ableton Live.

“Whewan” is an Orkney (Scotland) word for wind that howls around corners; the imagery and mood of this word feel perfect for this piece.

Whewan, Self-published (2023)

Read more about the Jama-Coaque here

From 2012 - 2019 I performed as a soloist with the Orquesta de Instrumentos Autóctonos y Nuevas Tecnologías of Argentina (OIANT).  This visionary, artistic-academic project was created by Argentine composer and educator, Alejandro Iglesias Rossi, and is directed by Iglesias Rossi and Visual Arts Director, Susana Ferreres. 

The OIANT is a living museum, with an ever-growing collection of thousands of Indigenous instruments that have been collected with contemporary artisans across the Americas and built by Orchestra members.  These instruments become part of re-orchestrations of historic folk songs like Agüita de Putiña, and compositions of contemporary Latin American composers like Iglesias Rossi, Leo Brouwer, and Eduardo Cáceres, and have been taken to stages across South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. 

During my time with the Orchestra I was a multi-instrumentalist, playing a large range of instruments including: Ocarina, Tarka, Siku, Pututu, Bastón, Zumbador, Vasija Silbadora, Silbato de la Muerte, N'viké, Turú, Pinkullo, Teponaztli, Huéhuetl, Sonajero, and Rama. We played in important concert halls of Buenos Aires, Argentina, including the Teatro Colón and the Ballena Azul of the Centro Cultural Kirchner, and toured across the country as well as in France, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

As part of my experience with the Orchestra, I was involved in instrument-building, costume construction, set design and construction, choreography and re-orchestration of contemporary works with Indigenous instruments.

Read more about the Orchestra

Read more about Alejandro Iglesias Rossi

From January 19-29th, 2023 I participated in an intensive 10-day training in research, study, and creation with clay as living material, that took place in the Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina organized by Nómada Cerámica.  This opportunity for professional development was made possible thanks to a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.

During the residency we responsibly harvested local clay from the local mountain range, which once formed part of the Gondwana supercontinent.  We worked with two materials; one dating to the Miocene (13 million year old material) and the other dating to the Paleocene period (66 Million year old material).

We completed a process of testing with the clays, and proceeded to develop and prepare a clay body as a group, to use in the fabrication of our own individual creations.  We completed the residency by building a temporary outdoor kiln and completing a 6 hour wood-firing before closing the residency with an improvisational performance in the mountains.

Read more about Nómada Cerámica

Composition for voice, electronics, and traditional, hand-built instruments: Ocarina, wooden Rattles, Whistling Bottle.

This piece was composed as part of my thesis in the master's program in Musical Creation, New Technologies, and Traditional Arts at the National University of Argentina Tres de Febrero.  In 2018 it was recipient of First Prize in the Contemporary Music Category from the Argentine National Music Council's Tribune of Composers, and was one of the International Rostrum of Composer's 12 recommended works for the year.

Hanblecheyapi is an electroacoustic work composed with instruments of the three Americas (North, Central, South) that I constructed during the Master's program and within the framework of projects with the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies. The title of the work alludes to the profoundly transformative process that one undergoes during the creative process.

These shell bells were created using bits of shells gathered at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. Each of the three bells produces a different note based on the size of its bell; the smaller the bell the higher the note and vice versa.

Shell Bells (2023)

Earthenware, oxides, pigments, beeswax

The design for this instrument originated in my thoughts about creativity and lineage; I like to think that where we find ease with certain materials and techniques, we are tapping into something that comes through us, not from us.  In that way, our art connects us with those that came before us.  When I use my hands and natural materials to make musical instruments, and find an intuitive relationship with clay or wood, form or design, I think about how this connects me with my Father, a woodworker; my Mother, a painter; my paternal Grandfather, a machinist and jewelry maker; my great Aunt, a sculptor.

This instrument is composed of two tubular flutes; one with pentatonic tuning and the other which acts as a drone producing a single note when played.  The flutes have separate air channels which allow them to be playing individually or together.

Ancestor's Flute (2023)

12 x 3 3/4 x 1 1/4 in

Earthenware, oxides, pigments

In 2021 I was commissioned by Shika Shika, a music label and non-profit organization, to create an original instrument series as part of the fundraising efforts for their album "A Guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa". 

Shika Shika seeks to create an inclusive, global movement that empowers artists, celebrates cultural migrations and embraces the power of music and art to drive change.  Since their founding in 2015, the label has released music from over 60 artists from 30 countries, including 36 digital and 10 vinyl releases.  Its iconic non-profit projects, such as the A Guide to the Birdsong series and the multi-label compilation Mamazonia: Odes to the Forest have gained worldwide recognition as innovative examples of musical activism. 

The A Guide to the Birdsong project was born from a simple but beautiful idea – to challenge some of the most talented producers and musicians from one region of the world to create a track inspired by the song of an endangered bird from their country.  The tracks would be compiled to make an album, released digitally and on eco-vinyl, with 100% of the funds raised from sales used to support local organisations working to save these incredible bird species.  

I was commissioned to design and build a series of flutes inspired by one of the birds to be featured on the album, and chose the Rufous Fishing Owl of Ghana.  These flutes were offered as one of the rewards during the project's Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign, which raised over $26,000 that was directly donated to three different non-profits working in important conservation efforts in Western Africa.

Read about Shika Shika

Listen to A Guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa