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Israel Fernando Herrera
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
herrerai@indiana.edu
812-679-9169

Last modified: Friday, March 9, 2012

IU to host second annual Spanish Portuguese Song Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's second Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave.

Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival

From left, Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival organizers Giselle Martins Pedrosa, Israel Fernando Herrera, Leonice Santamaria and Francisca Escoriza-Gallardo

Print-Quality Photo

The festival is the result of a collaboration between IU's Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Commission on Multi-Cultural Understanding; La Casa; Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs; and Latin American Music Center.

The festival will feature eight IU undergraduate students enrolled in the department of Spanish and Portuguese, who will sing before an experienced jury that will choose the top two performances.

The event will also feature special guests from different departments and other universities, including: Jiridon, a band from the department of folklore and ethnomusicology; Yuriria Rodriguez from the Latin American Music Center; Larry Savoy, winner of the Wabash College Spanish Song Festival; and Daniel Duarte and Sergio Miranda from the Jacobs School of Music.

"I was so glad to see how IU students, faculty and the Bloomington community responded to our call for last year's festival," said festival organizer Israel Fernando Herrera, a lecturer in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. "We had a packed room last year with undergraduate students singing for the first prize and special guests from diverse departments performing and singing great music. This year many students in my classes were so excited to know that there was an event like this at IU where they could use their Spanish and show their singing skills."

Support for this year's festival came from Spanish and Portuguese department chair Catherine Larson and an organization committee including faculty members Allen Davis, Giselle Martins Pedrosa, Francisca Escoriza-Gallardo, Leonice Santamaria and Robin Reeves, as well as Portuguese graduate student Maria Guimaraes.

In addition, Herrera said, the success of the Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival led to the organization of a statewide Spanish Song Festival this fall, which could potentially be held on IU's Bloomington campus.