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The Dartmouth
July 11, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Aguava fills Rollins with site-specific musical experience

The classical music performance group Aguava -- literally translated as "alarm" in Spanish -- chose its name to evoke images associated with the fear of flooding, with particular emphasis on the aftermath of a flood -- "the discovery and feeling associated with complete and total inundation," said Carmen Tellez, one of the artistic directors and producers of Aguava. Priding itself on the revival of classical music as an outlet for artistic expression, Aguava has emerged as a musical tangram -- constantly shuffling performers in and out of the group -- defined by geometric patterns, classical music and lyric poetry.

Last spring, the College commissioned Eric Richards, a composer for Aguava, to create a piece highlighting the unique architectural features of Rollins Chapel.

Utilizing the chapel's archways, crevices and open spaces, Richards has produced a sonorous site-specific piece with a two-fold purpose -- exploring the thematic progression from darkness to light and exploiting the rich auditory qualities available within the chapel to create an unprecedented depth and breadth of sound.

Aguava was first formed in 1996 by three artists passionate about preserving classical music. Not wishing the genre to become arcane or anachronistic, Aguava keeps classical music fresh with edgy improvisations.

"Out of all the contemporary art forms in society today, music is the one subject to the most scrutiny, the most protest as it is such an innovative and personal experience," Tellez said. "What Aguava strives to do is open the mind by incorporating modern elements within our rich musical tradition, revolutionizing preconceived notions and expectations associated with the genre of classical music."

Within the intimate atmosphere of Rollins Chapel, Aguava's eleven-man, classically infused ensemble will reverberate and echo through the chapel, showcasing the breadth and range of the acoustics within Rollins. By manipulating the architectural features within Rollins, Aguava will present a variety of pieces that will feauture vocal solos, an a capella duet, instrumental pieces and percussion solos -- one such solo is reminiscent of a woodpecker hammering away at dead wood.

Touted as an interactive show in which the usual barriers separating the audience from the performers are removed, one can expect continual movement from the performers, contributing to an overall three-dimensional synergy of sound and motion, as the performance progresses from the recesses of darkness -- the shadows of Rollins -- to the richness of light.

"It's a different kind of unique -- it's poetic, it's beautiful, it's something you will have never seen before," Tellez said.

Aguava will be performing in Rollins on March 1st.