Carlos Arredondo

Carlos has been singing in Scotland for more than 30 years.As a self–taught guitarist and singer he has been inspired by Chilean folklorists, Violeta Parra and Victor Jara and the international vision of the “new song" movement of the Americas rooted in the 1960s and 70s.

His music and his performances have been shaped by important events in Chilean history, notably Salvador Allende’s Presidency (1970-1973) and the dark years of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).  Since democracy in Chile Carlos has celebrated the achievements of his people, their country and their continent.

Carlos has worked and performed all over Scotland, the UK: internationally with the 7:84 Theatre Company and solo in Chile, Peru, Canada, Italy and Sweden.

In the 1980s he founded and ran El Rincón Chileno at St John’s Edinburgh. In 2003 he was featured artist in the BBC Radio 3 programme the “World on Our Street."

In the 1990s Carlos founded FABULA (For a Better Understanding of Latin America).  He writes poetry and has fused his own biography with a comprehensive history of the Chilean refugees and the Chile Solidarity Campaign in Scotland during the 1970s and the 1980s (www.carlosarredondo.com)

“I play and sing the music of Violeta Parra and Victor Jara here in Scotland with enormous pleasure.   They represent so much in Chilean popular culture: their social and political commitment expressed in beautiful folk songs always on the side of the working class, the poor and the destitute has always inspired me”

Galvarino Cerón-Carrasco

Galo is a classically trained Chilean guitarist. Born in Antofagasta Chile in the 1960s, Galo came to Dundee Scotland in the late 1970s as a political exile with his parents and sister Ruby.  As well as his native Chile, he specialises in the music of Latin American composers from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, México, Paraguay and Cuba, including Alberto Ginastera, Astor Piazzolla, Heítor Villa-Lobos, Antonio Lauro, Manuel Ponce, Agustín Barrios, Leo Brouwer, Julio Sagreras.

Galo studied classical guitar at the RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama), Glasgow with professor Philip Thorne (MBE), winning the Guitar Challenge Prize (1985) and commended for the Governor’s String Prize (1986).  He followed postgraduate study at Moscow’s Gnisnigh Institute. 

Galo lives in Edinburgh, where he divides his time between composing and performing.  He has played with many notable groups and was a founding member of the internationally renowned Salsa Celtica. Galo has recently composed music for independent theatre productions, and the National Theatre of Scotland.

"I think it is important that the world does not forget these two seminal musicians Violeta Parra and Victor Jara. They have influenced a host of musicians worldwide, not only because of the brilliance of their 1960s and 70s "avant-garde" folk styles, but also their courage to fearlessly promote their own "political" folk music.  The Pinochet dictatorship tried to wipe out this music: but even by brutally killing Víctor Jara in 1973 they did not succeed. Today the music of Jara and Parra continues to symbolise the reality of the Latin American continent and beyond... Just listen to their lyrics!