AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA

(To the South of the Border)

AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA brings together the traditional music from the Sierra Zapoteca of Oaxaca with experimental arrangements, featuring the Oaxacan LA-based Maqueos Music youth philharmonic band, multidisciplinary artist Dorian Wood, indigenous trilingual Mixtec rapper Una Isu, Latina coloratura Soprano Maria Elena Altany, Chicano “futuristic laser gangster bass” electronic musician Baseck, multi-instrumentalist and conductor extraordinaire Yulissa Maqueos, and the Mexican extreme vocalist and interdisciplinary artist Carmina Escobar.

Conceived by Mexico City-raised, Los Angeles-based Escobar, AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA is the result of her seven-year long collaborative relationship with maestro Estanislao Maqueos, founder of the first youth philharmonic band in the United States composed of first generation Oaxaqueños in America, called the Maqueos Music Academy. The Academy’s talented musicians are the centerpiece of AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA, and they embody the Academy’s mission to support music and to create a safe space for learning and preserving their culture through music.

AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA was created by co-Artistic Directors Escobar and artist Madeline Falcone for Boss Witch Productions, an artistic production company focused on the intersection of experimental sound art, ritual performance, video art, and transmedia collaboration. Founded and led by queer and trans artists, Boss Witch is headed by Falcone and Escobar, working to establish a sustainable and artist-driven infrastructure for the creation of experimental, site-specific work. Boss Witch seeks to reimagine our relationship to the world around us, creating immersive innovative exhibitions, performances, and sound art related to land, ritual, and the constant transformation of tradition.

AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA is Presented by The Ford and produced in partnership with Boss Witch Productions

View the AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA Program Works

Read the AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA Program Notes and Text written by Boss Witch Productions Chair Laura Gutiérrez in conversation with Carmina Escobar