If you’re around the University of Oregon by 15th and Villard Street the evening of Friday, Jan. 24, catch Argentinean guitarist, composer, singer and songwriter Cecilia Zabala.
The concert starts at 7 pm at Maude Kerns Art Center as part of Zabala’s “Canciones De Invierno” [Songs of Winter] tour, which will take her throughout Oregon and California for the next few weeks. She will perform songs, give presentations and give master classes on the tour.
Zabala, born and raised in Buenos Aires, has a long musical history deeply rooted in the country. The oldest of three siblings, she started playing the guitar at six years old before going into the first grade. She also joined a choir, where teachers not only saw her potential but also a lifelong career.
“The choir teacher asked me after this one show if I ever thought about music as a way of life,” Zabala recalls, “and I loved it. I like to play everything, it’s tremendous, the passion in it and how it awakens me.”
Zabala’s music touches on themes of self-reflection, folklore and multi-regional traditions of Southern American cultures. Her sound resonates lyrically and melodically, but she also combines classical methods with contemporary motifs throughout her songs and albums.
By the time she was 19, she went abroad to a conservatorio to study Brazilian music in Curitiba in southern Brazil. And this is where she started to find her sound and style.
She began to perform with artists such as Quique Sinesi, Silvia Iriondo, Juan Falú and Philippe Baden Powell, all well-known artists in South America who she studied with and played with in festivals. She would go on to record in studios and be a part of albums with these musicians.
Her first album, Agauribay, shows her skills with classical guitar paired with lyrics that are poetic and profound. You start to hear her expressions manifest and come alive as something real, something you can relate to, such as in “Dońa Ubenza,” where she sings “Ando llorando pa dentro/ Aunque me ria pa fuera/ Asi tengo yo que vivir /Esperando a que me muera.” [I’m crying inside/ Even if I laugh outside/ That’s how I have to live/ Waiting for me to die.”]
With nine albums, four singles and an EP, Zabala has not only made a name for herself in the industry but captured a new genre in Latin American culture, one that she voices with color, texture and harmony.
“My music is a dialogue and it communicates,” Zabala says. “As if it were a strange dessert or a sweet, something you wouldn’t swallow in the first take. But if you keep listening, then surely on the second or third time you will begin to understand what it is about.”
She gives space for creativity that looks past genre and language. Zabala has a range and volume you can’t lower or raise, but accept as a soul musician in the world of music. If this sounds up your alley, come and find her and her music Friday at Maude Kerns.