Welcome back to Travel Notes! Today, we're thrilled to chat with professional violinist, Laura Diaz. Laura's musical journey took her from graduating with degrees in Music Performance, Music History and Computer Information Systems to a 2021 SURF Grant where she explored Guatemalan composer Joaquín Orellana's career amidst Guatemala's turbulent history, digitizing and archiving his work for future generations. Tune in for a deep dive into the innovative music of Joaquín Orellana, Laura’s groundbreaking project and this unique cultural connection!

Link to the documentary: https://youtu.be/fFvcQVbNddw

Link to NY Times article on Joaquín Orellana: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/arts/music/joaqin-orellana-the-spine-of-music.html

In today's show we are going somewhere we’ve never been before on Travel Notes! We are going to the southernmost island in the Caribbean just off the coast of Venezuela, perhaps most musically well known for their steel drums thanks to their economy’s heavy reliance on petrochemicals and petroleum, you may have heard of this island called Trinidad and Tobago!

Our cultural liaison will be Trinidadian and Toronto based musician Drew Gonsalves, founder of the calypso group Kobo Town. Together, we get to know the complex, diverse and compact country of Trinidad and Tobago through the musical lens of calypso and Kobo Town’s newest album, Carnival of Ghosts.

Today's musical guests on Travel Notes are two lovely humans and fantastic musicians: Eleanor Dubinsky & Darío Acosta Teich. Eleanor is a USA-born vocalist, guitarist and cellist who sings in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Her music is open-hearted and culturally fluid, connecting underground tributaries between languages and world rhythms in uplifting, soulful compositions that explore the fragile links between human emotions and responsibility. Dario, a guitarist, composer and master of Latin folk instruments, combines his deep knowledge of classical and South American vocabularies with his passion for jazz harmony and free improvisation.

Together, we explore their music, expansive respective and shared musical journeys and discuss how music connects us as all as human beings.

Learn more about their work & music here