The Huehuetenango Songbook - CD

Tenor Jonatan Alvarado and vihuelist Ariel Abramovich browse through the folios of the Huehuetenango song manuscript: 15 volumes of polyphony and Gregorian chants from Northern Guatemala. From the more than 350 works recorded between 1582 and 1635, the dream duo chose mass movements, motets, chansons and villancicos that offer a glimpse of the intercontinental musical traffic on the eve of the Baroque.? Jonatan Alvarado is a singer and player of (very) old songs, be them contained by Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts scattered all over the world, or found in the oral traditions of Europe and the Americas. He took his first musical steps in the guitar class at the conservatory and in the municipal choirs of Mercedes, Buenos Aires. He then studied orchestral conducting, choral conducting and composition, and later graduated with honours in singing and lute. He is musical director and co-founder of the ensemble Seconda Pratica and a member of Da Tempera Velha and Sollazzo Ensemble. Dazzled by a fantasy by composer Luys de Narvaez, Ariel Abramovich decided - being still a teenager - to dedicate exclusively to the lute and vihuela repertoire of the 16th century, a decision he has maintained to this day without any regrets. In 1996 he moved to Switzerland to study with his teacher and mentor, Hopkinson Smith, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He has released several albums with a variety of musicians and is member of the ensemble Da Tempera Velha, dedicated to Medieval and early Renaissance Castillian repertoire.