All ages • All welcome • Free admission • ADA accessible
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Join Us for La Peña del SurCo
This month, we’re featuring musicians from each of this year’s peñas!
Che Cafe Empanadas will be selling Argentine empanadas. Drinks will also be available for purchase, and you’re welcome to bring your own.
What Is a Peña?
A peña is an informal Latin American folk music gathering. Peñas take different forms across Latin America and are more participatory than a typical concert: multiple musical groups often perform, group singing is common, and community members are frequently invited to share a song.
By design, peñas are inclusive community events open to music lovers of all ages.
About La Peña del SurCo
La Peña del SurCo is a cultural initiative led by ethnomusicologist and arts and health researcher Dr. Jennie Gubner and her Argentine/Chilean folk music trio, El SurCo.
Gubner’s current research explores how intercultural, participatory music practices can strengthen age-friendly and intergenerational healthy communities. La Peña del SurCo celebrates folk music traditions from Argentina, Chile, and across Latin America while building community through intimate, acoustic, and participatory musical practices.
Meet El SurCo
El SurCo is a musical collective that blends guitars, violin, charango, bombo, and vocal harmonies to bring to life chacareras, cuecas, chamamés, gatos, and other popular and folk stringed music traditions from Argentina, Chile, and surrounding regions.
The word surco means “groove” in Spanish and refers to the furrows where seeds are planted in agricultural fields. This musical term, with its rural subtext, speaks to the landscapes where many of these styles emerged and continue to thrive.
El SurCo—or The Southern Collective—transports listeners into the diverse and vibrant musical ecosystems of the southern tip of the Americas.
The trio features:
- Maxi Larrea: guitar, vocals, and bombo
- Jennie Gubner: violin, vocals, and bombo
- Andres Pantoja: guitar, charango, bombo, and vocals
Maxi Larrea
Maxi Larrea is a tango and folk guitarist, arranger, composer, and music educator from Rosario, Argentina. He has been recording, performing, and touring internationally for over 20 years.
In 2020, he released Donde Termina el Río / Where the River Ends, a solo album of original tango and folklore compositions. In 2021, he received a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to publish a book of tango sheet music for guitar. In 2023, he received a Southwest Folklife Alliance Master Artist Award.
Andres Pantoja
Andres Pantoja is a versatile Chilean musician who performs classical, flamenco, and Latin American music on guitar and charango. He has performed in the United States, South America, and Europe and has recorded eight albums.
He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in guitar performance from the University of Arizona.
Jennie Gubner
Jennie Gubner is a violinist and PhD ethnomusicologist who serves as Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Intercultural Arts Research at the University of Arizona.
Having spent years studying and performing tango and folk music within participatory music scenes in Buenos Aires, her research and performance activities focus on promoting music as a vehicle for intergenerational wellness and community building.
Organizers & Sponsors
This event was organized by University of Arizona ethnomusicologist Dr. Jennie Gubner, in collaboration with Sydney Streightiff and the members of El SurCo.
Event sponsors include:
- Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (AIAR GIDP)
- Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS)
- Banner Health
- The Southwest Center
- The School of Music
- Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona
This program is funded in part by the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona with funding from Pima County and the City of Tucson.
Questions or Interested in Sharing a Song?
For more information about this event series, or if you’re interested in sharing a song at a peña, contact jgubner@arizona.edu.