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To celebrate 40 years of playing the finest traditional Andean Music from the Highlands of South America, SUKAY will be touring with a special 10 piece troupe of musicians and dancers. The group will feature charango master and two time Latin Grammy nominee Eddy Navia, along with pan pipes, guitar and percussion, and six beautifully costumed dancers.
SUKAY is widely-known and celebrated for bringing the music of the Andes for the first time to thousands of cities and concert stages throughout North America. The group’s name came from the ancient language and culture of the Quechuas of the central Andes, and it means “to open the earth and make it ready for planting.”
With deep sounding pipes, haunting flutes and fast-paced rhythms, Sukay creates an ethereal, pulsating sound that fills listeners with the energy and strength of the Andes Mountains. Sukay draws from a broad palette of exotic sounds: the deep, sharp, airy lasts of the medieval-sounding sikus (pan pipes with graduated tubes up to 5 feet long); the high, vocal inflections of the kena (notched flute); the shimmering ring of the charango (a mandolin-like instrument made from an armadillo shell); and the resonant tones and muted percussive drive of the classical guitar.
For their first 25 years Sukay toured extensively throughout North America,
including major concerts in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Jack Singer Concert Hall, Obert C.Tanner Ampitheater in Utah, the Herbst Theatre and Masonic Auditorium San Francisco, Wilder Hall at Oberlin, Red Rocks Ampitheater in Colorado, the Lisner Auditorium and Smithsonian Institution’s Baird Auditorium in Washington DC, Teatro Campesino, Cal Arts Valencia, the Roy Disney Center for Performing Arts in Albuquerque, the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Arizona, Centennial Hall in Tuscon, Spivey Hall in Ohio, and the Colisee Arena in Quebec City (opening for Peter Gabriel and Genesis).
The group also appeared at the folk festivals in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto, and at Pete Seeger’s Clearwater Revival and countless other venues. They toured internationally and recorded many albums. Among the Andean legends joining them were Yuri Ortuño “the Placido Domingo of Bolivia”, Savia Andina’s renown wind instrumentalist Alcides Mejia, and Eddy Navia, one of Bolivia’s beloved charangists.
Eddy went on to become Sukay’s mentor and husband of Sukay's co-founder Quentin Howard Navia. In the mid-‘70s, Eddy had Eric Clapton status in his native country. The music of his band stayed atop the South America Top 40 charts, and several of their 35 album recordings on CBS and RCA went gold. In 1989, Eddy Navia took over as Artistic Director of the group. In 2012 and 2013 he was nominated for the prestigious Latin Grammy and is considered to be one of the greatest Bolivian composers and charango virtuosos in the world today.
In the late 1990’s, Quentin and Eddy founded Pena Pachamama, an Andean cultural center and restaurant in San Francisco. Sukay cut back on its national touring schedule to appear at Pena Pachamama, along with many other artists to promote Andean music, food and culture. Now with their 40th anniversary at hand, Sukay is celebrating by returning to the road with a full cast of musicians and dancers.
Quotes:
“The performance completely thrilled the audience. The hauntingly beautiful sounds were elegant and sophisticated. . . This show is something special.” -the Washington Post
“Dazzling the listener with a display of complete musicality that defied the limitations of their instruments . . . an overflow-capacity crowd on its feet in a wash of thunderous applause.” -Tucson Citizen
“A lush blend of textures, tones, rhythms and styles that continually evoke the culture of the Andes.”
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Music from the heart that you’ll never forget.” -Michigan Daily
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2016
March 18 Alberta Bair Theater, Billings MT
Sukay will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary touring with a 10 piece troupe of musicians and dancers in the 2015-2016 season. Sukay is based in San Francisco CA.
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Our roster encompasses established and emerging artists from India, Ireland, Hawaii, Guinea, France, Cuba, Italy, Scotland, Japan, Germany, Sweden and England, and an array of musicians from Canada and the United States.
