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. 

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 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

Polyphonic flutes are tubular duct flutes where one instrument can be made up of two, three, or even four different flutes.  Oftentimes the flutes have separate air channels so that they can be played individually or in different combinations.  These types of flutes were common to Mesoamerica, made by cultures like the Colima, Aztec, and Maya.

This instrument is composed of three different tubular flutes and a small whistle in the snake's head. Each of the three flutes can be played independently or together to create multiphonic melodies and beat frequencies. 

When I first returned to the US from Argentina, I was spent a lot of time hiking on a trail I know well, in the small city where I grew up.  One day I had an encounter with Timber Rattler, Maryland's only rattle snake.  I heard her first, and upon hearing that rattling sound my body instinctively and immediately responded with racing heart and a rush of adrenaline.  I stumbled back a few steps as I frantically scanned the ground.  I finally spotted her, about 10 feet ahead of me.  She'd been crossing the trail I was on and we'd clearly startled one another.  I froze and waited.  She stopped rattling and did the same.  After a few moments I felt the tension dissipate.  She began flicking her forked red tongue, and continued on her way.  I was stunned by her beauty; her markings and the way she moved across the earth.

Earthenware, oxides, pigments

6.5 x 8.5 x 1 in

2024

Vessel rattles (also called shakers or maracas) consist of a vessel filled with loose pellets.  Early rattles were made from a wide variety of materials, such as dried gourds, fruit, seaweed, seed pods, tortoise shells, leather, and other natural materials.  Examples of ancient clay rattles have been found all over the world.  Rattles are one of the oldest instruments and in many societies, they are associated with the supernatural and accompany religious rites.

These rattles are inspired by the spikey seed pods of Sweet Gum tree.  Each rattle has a different quantity and size of pellets, resulting in a slightly different timbre of sound when played. 

My body holds vivid memories of summer rainstorms that I experienced as an adolescent growing up in Maryland.  Somedays it would get so humid and so hot that it became unbearable, until finally the rains would let loose.  Then the skies would open up and, however briefly, release a deluge of warm rain.  My best friend and I would run out into the streets in our t-shirts and bare feet to stomp around in the storm.  The only thing that could possibly foil our unbridled joy was stepping on Sweet Gum seed pod hidden in the sudden flood waters.

Earthenware, oxides, pigments, beeswax

7.25 x 3.5 x 3.5 in each

2024

Flower flutes are duct flutes that traditionally had four fingerholes, and a bell in the shape of a blossom.  They were created by the Aztec in Late Post-Classic Mesoamerica (1350-1521 CE) where flowers were associated with beauty, virtuosity, and music.  The Aztec concept of music as a “flowery song” is reflected in the calyx-shape of the flower flute. To play it allows us to visualize the metaphorical link between sound and the scent of blossoms, both regarded as sacrificial gifts functioning as a means of communication with the spiritual realm.                 

Flowers have had spiritual significance for many cultures around the world.  I love the way that the Aztec drew connections between the spiritual meaning of flowers and sound through these flutes.  It also makes me think about the powerful connection between scent, emotion, and memory.  For my own flower flutes, I’ve explored flowers that have personal significance for me; flowers that connect me with family, that have accompanied me in specific times in my life, and whose scents are very nostalgic.

We moved many times as I was growing up.  At one particular house, where we lived during my teenage years until I left for college, my Mother cultivated the most spectacular gardens.  My Grandmother gifted her a Lilac bush; it was a Korean Lilac and it had the most enchanting perfume.  On summer nights I would sleep with my window open and the heady scent would waft in through my window.  

This instrument is a double tubular flute with Lilac blossom-shaped bells,  It has one drone flute that produces a single tone, and one flute with three finger holes to play melodies. Flutes can be played individually or together.                        

Earthenware, oxides, beeswax

8.74 x 4 x 2 in

2024

My teachers in Argentina instilled in me the importance of passing on these instrument-making traditions, and I was recruited to begin teaching early on in my studies there. 

After 12 years in Argentina, I returned to the US in 2021. Through sharing these arts here, I continue to honor my teachers, raise awareness of the important instrument-making traditions developed by Pre-Columbian cultures across Central and South America, and cultivate cross-cultural connections.  On a personal level, sharing these practices here has helped me to re-root myself in my lands of origin; bringing me into deeper relationship with myself, my community, and the place and time in which I am living.

Communing with people of all ages through this practice reveals lessons about the depth of our collective relationship with clay and sound, the power of music to create moments of shared emotion, and the sense of presence and vitality that naturally results from coming together in a circle, big or small, to create in community. 

The photos in this installation are from teaching artist residencies in schools around Maryland and instrument-making workshops at the BMA, Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Baltimore Clayworks, and Creative Alliance.