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Ahoj, senorita

Marta Töpferová brings her Latin sound home

By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
April 9th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO

Living among other immigrants in the United States gave Töpferová a chance to develop her interest in Latin American music. enlarge

COURTESY PHOTO

Her instrument of choice is the cuatro. enlarge

Marta Töpferová

When: Friday, April 11, at 7:30
Where: Palác Akropolis
Tickets: 170 Kč, available through Ticketpro and at the venue

In the fall of 2006, a headline in the Christian Science Monitor quizzically exclaimed, “Latin music’s new star is ... Czech?”

Indeed she is, and it takes a map of the world to fully trace Marta Töpferová’s background and rise as a Czech-American diva of Spanish song. Born in Ostrava, she started singing at the age of 8 with a children’s chorus in Prague. When her family moved to the United States in 1987, Töpferová took with her a love of Latin music that she had picked up from records given to her parents by Chilean friends.

Töpferová sang and toured with the Seattle Girls’ Choir for four years before devoting herself to a full-time music career, exploring Latin music while attending Bard College and then moving to Spain, where she took up guitar. In 1996, she settled in New York City, where she immersed herself in the Latin music scene, particularly in the Venezuelan and Colombian communities.

Eventually, Töpferová traded her guitar for a cuatro, a four-stringed Venezuelan instrument, and developed a style that blends influences ranging from Argentine poets to Venezuelan vocal styles to Moravian folk music. This confluence of New and Old World melodic sensibilities, which shares the eerie beauty heard in early bossa nova, is well-suited to what The New York Times has described as the “elegant longing in her voice.”

Now an established presence on the world music scene, Töpferová is touring the Czech Republic and Slovakia this month, including a stop at Palác Akropolis in Prague Friday. Before leaving the United States, she took time to answer some questions about her journey from Ostrava to the poetic heart of Latin American song.

The Prague Post: How did moving to the United States affect your musical development?

Marta Töpferová: I left my country with the grim possibility that I might never be able to go back, and was forced to begin a new life in America. I gravitated toward immigrants a great deal, especially during my formative years between 12 and 18. I felt a very strong connection with my Latin American friends, the language and the music, so my Spanish-related interests became a sort of second home for me. Hence, my immigration to the United States has very much to do with my involvement in Latin American music, as well as my longing to reconnect with Czech music and make those influences a part of my art as well.

TPP: What similarities, musical or otherwise, have you found in the Hispanic Americas that resonate with your homeland?

MT: I find that there are similar themes in the lyrics of Czech and Latin American folk music — many images of nature and landscapes. You can feel that the music is tied to the land and its history. What I’m particularly fond of in the lyrics of both Czech and Latin American folk songs is that one can hear a certain longing and human struggle in the music. People who are not very familiar with Latin American music tend to think of upbeat salsa, merengue or mariachis. But there is so much more to discover.

TPP: Was there a particular event or moment in time when you knew that you were on a viable path with your journey into Hispanic music?

MT: I guess singing with [New York-based Colombian singer] Lucia Pulido was one of the biggest steppingstones for me. I joined her group in 1997, and we sang together for five years. To this day, I think she is the strongest and most authentic singer of our generation on the scene. She could have chosen to sing with a Latin American singer, so the fact that we collaborated for as long as we did really meant something.

TPP: Are there specific genres of Latin American music that your work falls into?

MT: It’s hard to say; even in Latin America, it would be difficult to place my music in one genre. Certain songs could fall into “folklore Argentino,” others more into modern Venezuelan folk music. Perhaps the best genre would be Nueva Cancion (New Song), which is a movement consisting of singers and songwriters from the ’70s till now.

TPP: Do you compose primarily on the cuatro?

MT: I started composing accompanying myself on the guitar. Then, when I started playing cuatro almost seven years ago, most of my songs were composed with that instrument. But now I’m coming back to writing with the guitar again.

TPP: Can you tell us about the ensemble you’re playing with on your current tour?

MT: This is the first time I have Czech band members playing my music. Actually, Tomáš Liška got it all started. He wrote me an e-mail about a year ago offering his collaboration. I saw that he’s a very active bass player on the Prague scene, so I planned a session with him, and asked him to invite a soloist as well. Tomáš suggested woodwinds player Marcel Bárta. We got together in December 2007 and the session went great! Both Tomáš and Marcel are incredibly talented, skilled and sensitive musicians. I knew within the first couple songs we played that we would make a nice group.

I’m also bringing one of my colleagues from New York. Neil Ochoa is a Venezuelan percussionist I’ve worked with for over five years now. He’s recorded on two of my albums. He is very versatile and knows a great deal about South American rhythms.

And Jiří Stivín will be joining us in Trutnov and Prague. We met in Prague through my father. Jiří had seen me play my music on Czech TV, and really liked it. From what I know of his work, his musical range and knowledge are very wide, so it will be a treat to have him join us.

TPP: Will you be premiering any new works, or have any special surprises for concertgoers in Prague?

MT: The most recent development is that I will be accompanying myself on guitar for several songs. Up until now, I only performed with the cuatro, so this adds another color to the group. I also plan to include a few of my favorite songs from Latin America, such as “Eclipse,” “Soy pan, soy paz, soy mas” and “Entre a mi pago sin golpear,” among others. I will be performing mostly original compositions in Spanish. But I also plan to sing two or three Czech folk songs.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com

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