Day 9 - A Day with a Peruvian Music and Culture Icon

Blog by Jim Stark with additions by Matt. We were invited to spend the day in the studio of Julie Freundt. It turns out, Julie is like the Faith Hill or Linda Ronstadt or Mariah Carey of Peru - Pick your decade. She is a very famous singer/composer who is about 40-45 years old now. I had a chance to verify her fame by asking some taxi drivers and a gas station attendant if they knew her when I was riding with her, and they all said yes, she was very famous in Peru. Later on that night, Julie's fame would get us a special favor and access....read on.

We arrived around 10:00 in the morning, and the kids spent an hour or so working on vocals with Julie herself. She focused on how to breath, how to project their voices, etc. She was very funny and charming. The kids got right into it. She spoke great English, but used Spanish when she wanted to retain authenticity when talking about Peruvian music styles.

Then for the next hour the dance teacher taught them a typical Peruvian dance including a fun traditional courtship dance where a rolled up piece of paper was inserted into the back of one person's waist so that the rolled paper looked like a tail. Their dance partner followed carrying a lit candle trying to light the paper on fire. The person being pursued, if using the correct dance moves which was a swaying of the hips, would make it very difficult to allow their "tail" to catch fire. In fact the whole point was that if you could light the tail, the person was then promised to you. If the person being pursued liked the person chasing, they would sway very slowly in order to allow their tail to catch fire. It sure made for some lively dancing, and the kids learned how to swivel their hips to the degree that their paper tails were not lit! During this hour, Julie also participated by providing the drum beat on a wooden box instrument.

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For the third hour, Julie again took the lead in teaching the students how to play a traditional African-Peruvian drum rhythm and song. She also worked with them on how to improvise. All in all it was a morning well spent.

For lunch they served Pollo a la Braza, a traditional peruvian meal consisting of roticery chicken and french fries. The chicken is very flavorful, and is one of the best dishes in Peru. The plan was to perform for her vocal and performing students right there in her studio, so we quickly set up the tech the equipment in a 35 x 35 studio room.

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We cut the performance short due to a surprise Julie had for all of us - As a treat for us, she obtained tickets to a show called Broadway 2010, where some very famous Peruvian actors, actresses and ballerinas were performing. This was in the oldest theater in Lima, El Teatro Segura. Originally built in the 1780's, it was destroyed by an earthquake sometime in the early 1900's, but was rebuilt. So the building was somewhere around 100 years old. Very artsy, very cool. Think miniature version of the New York City Metropolitan Theatre. The show consisted of a review of various famous Broadway shows, sung in Spanish but recognizable by everyone. It was fun to see them do some of the same songs we are doing in our production.

After the show was over, because Julie is so famous, she was able to convince the security guards to let us back into the theater. We were taking pictures in front of the stage when the main actress and actor and a few others were coming out of the dressing room and spotted us and Julie. They came over to talk with us, and we were able to take some group pictures with us and them. They asked us what we were doing in Peru, and so we were able to share with them what Morningstar is all about. They requested a demonstration, so our kids got up on the stage and performed "Somebody to Love" by Queen. They did it a cappella, and where able to stay on key and sounded great.

Just take a moment to picture what happened here for the kids. They had spent a day with a pop star who got them tickets to see a very professional production that would play at the Orpheum in San Francisco. They new almost every song performed except for a few random ones. They were allowed to not only hang out in the theater afterwards but also perform on the stage with about a dozen of the stars that had just been in the show they had just watched coming in hugging Julie and then watching and applauding them. Surreal really.

All in all it was a wonderful fun filled and productive day.