When: 28th March 2009

Where: Tom Mann Theatre,  136 Chalmers St, Surry Hills, Sydney Australia

What time: 7:30pm

Price: $30 ‘pre-paid’ or $35 ‘at the door’

Where to purchase: Call one of the following people to reserve your ticket

Antonio: 9247 4235

Juanita: 0414 824 727

Johnny: 0413 252 669

Ricardo: 0413 217 530

Salustio: 0413 368 242

WHO IS LUIS RICO?

Luis Rico was born in Tupiza, in the Potosi department on the 15th May 1946. His musical career began in May 1968, more than 40 years, at the University National Festival in the city of Cochabamba.

Luis Rico’s music was forged during the tumultuous periods of the 60s and 70s under various military coup d’etats and dictatorships in Bolivia. His music found new causes during various social movements of the time whose objectives were to recover and restore democracy in Bolivia. However, his music is today more relevant than ever before given the recent drastic changes in Bolivia which have been felt in Latin America and the rest of the world.

As he was starting out, Luis Rico identified himself with the aspirations of his people when participating in different student festivals. Since then, the lyrics of his songs, often truthful and ironic, express deep truths. These lyrics were not taken very nicely by corrupt politicians and militants in Bolivia who exploited the country’s wealth or corrupted the country’s institutions to remain in power.

For the most powerful and most corrupt people in Bolivia, Luis Rico was always a “persona non grata” and because of that he was forced to work underground and endured persecution, prison and exile during 18 years of dictatorship and 25 years of corrupt pseudo-democracies. Despite that, thanks to his popularity, talent and relentless struggle for popular culture and Bolivian folklore, Luis Rico heads the Folklore Division of the Prefecture of the La Paz department from November 1970 until the 21st August 1971.

While in exile from September 1980 to October 1982, he takes on the role of investigator of the Department of Culture at the University of Veracruz in Mexico. In addition, because of this tireless musical work and his innate curiousity and love for studying, he finds himself participating and conducting workshops of Musicology and Ethnomusicology & Anthropology.

Over a musical career lasting 40 years, he has produced a total of 32 albums with a variety of people, from native Andean Bolivian musicians, Afro-Bolivian musicians, military bands to the Bolivian National Symphony Orchestra.

Luis Rico has played in many countries during his career: Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Uruguay, United States, Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Italy.

Luis Rico is a versatile artist who covers the largest range of songs in Bolivia. There’s no other Bolivian singer that has travelled around Bolivia more extensively and knows the Bolivian identity better. Nowadays, he dedicates his life to educating citizens by holding educational concerts that allow him to compose songs to help him teach. He also sings for ecological and environmental causes. His album “For Transparency In Bolivia” is entirely dedicated to democracy and to achieving greater transparency in the administration of public goods.

He also expresses his love for his homeland in the song “Viva mi Patria Bolivia (Long live my homeland Bolivia).” He also sings about love for a woman in “Tanto te ame (I loved you so much).”

An ingredient that’s never lacking in Luis Rico’s concerts in humour through the songs “Ingles Intensivo (Intensive English)”, “Cuando doblen las campanas (When they bend the bells)”, “El contaminador (The contaminator)” and the mischief in the songs “The Waltz of the Corrupt Ones” … Luis Rico is the punishment of those that damage the country. With a lot of poetic sensibility, he both entertains us and makes think and feel in the deepest of places.

In his Sydney shows at the end of March, he will sing accompanied by Andean music group Inka Marka (who will make the trip up from Melbourne exclusively for his Sydney shows). Visually, the music will be accompanied with Bolivian dancers who continue to exhibit Bolivian folkloric music in Sydney and Australia: Bolivian dance groups include Bolivia Mia, Bolivia Unida & Bolivian fraternity. They will show the public some traditional Bolivian dances: Cueca, Thinku, Pujllay, Diablada, Tobas, Caporales y Chacerera.

That’s how Luis Rico, Inka Marka and the Bolivian dance groups will complete their mission of making our hearts beat, not only of Bolivians, but of our brothers and sisters in Latin America, Spain, Australia etc.

We hope you are able to attend one of Luis Rico’s shows in Sydney.

For additional information and ticket sales, please call one of the following people:

Antonio – 9247 4235
Juanita – 0414 824 727
Johnny – 0413 252 669
Ricardo – 0413 217 530
Salustio – 0413 368 242