“I will be surprised if there are people still in seats after the concert,” MinTze Wu told The Sopris Sun. “This music just comes through your body.” Wu is the founder of BenFeng Music Productions, concluding its Barn Music Series this season with A Venezuelan Celebration on May 29-30. “We are still going to have seating for those that need it,” she clarified, but unlike the other concerts in this series, “there will be space to stand and dance.”
For this fourth and final movement of the series this season, Wu has gathered a few of the most renowned Venezuelan musicians living in the United States to deliver “a heartfelt tribute to the Venezuelan spirit, a celebration of cultural heritage and a message of hope,” Gonzalo Teppa, the bassist and program curator stated. “In times of transition and uncertainty, music becomes a home for the heart.”
The idea came more than a year ago, when Wu and her daughters went to deliver food to Venezuelan migrants taking shelter at the Third Street Center in the winter of 2023-2024. Wu was astonished by the politeness and gratitude she encountered. She and friends, Natalie Spears and Mateo Sandate, played music for the migrants, “and they were so happy,” Wu relayed. “One person came up and asked if I knew the Venezuelan national anthem. I did not, but that was the time in my mind I wanted to do a concert for them.”
The concert is now coming to fruition with performers Manuel Rojas, flute, Victor Mestas, piano, Héctor Molina, cuatro, and Teppa, bass, transporting audiences into “the soul of joropo and the rhythm of gaita, to the tenderness of merengue caraqueño and the driving pulse of Afro-Venezuelan traditions,” Teppa elaborated.
Wu will also perform a few songs alongside these virtuosos. “I think art is our most vocal resistance,” Wu described. “Artists often are the frontline of speaking from our flesh, of who we are, what we aspire to be.”
On May 19, the Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s cancellation of temporary protected status for Venezuelans. The 2023 designation protected some 350,000 immigrants from deportation.
“This relentless effort from our administration to label a group of people a certain way, I think we need to continue to open that up and say, ‘There’s so much more, and let’s not close our eyes. Let’s not close our hearts.’”
BenFeng is planning precautions in case the concert attracts unwanted attention from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Wu said of newcomer Venezuelans interested in attending, “We want them to know it’s here, and we want them to feel like they are welcome, but I can’t promise they’re safe.” She continued, “It’s so disheartening. On this soil, we can’t just say, ‘You’re welcome.’ We can’t even say, ‘You’re safe.’”
She continued, “We forget this is a people. They occupy the space of the most virtuosic of musicians, engineers, brilliant minds, compassionate poets.” The concert is dedicated to “every Venezuelan carrying their homeland in their heart while paving a path forward for their children and future generations” and it is made possible thanks to Carbondale Arts and Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty.
A Venezuelan Celebration audiences will also get a sneak-peek into the next Barn Music Series season, which begins in September and will include three shows.
“The growth is so evident,” Wu said, reflecting on the four concerts this previous season will have produced. “People want to be in this journey together. People want to see a music series that touches on many different aspects of our life.” Wu expressed special gratitude to Brian Leasure with Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty for lending just the right space to this cause. “The acoustics, the history, the warm-welcoming ambiance, it all just feels so right,” she concluded.
In a nutshell:
What: A Venezuelan Celebration
When: May 29-30, 7pm
Where: Old Thompson Barn
Cost: $40 for seated, $30 for standing/dancing, free for youth 17 and under
Website: www.benfengmusicproductions.org