Día del Libro with Nancy Ábalos and the Compañía Argentina de Música

Nancy Ábalos and the Compañía Argentina de Música

Día del Libro is one of the events that book lovers look forward to every year. These bookworms flock over to Instituto Cervantes to find great buys that come with a stem of rose for every book purchased. Aside from the book sale, there are also various activities, contests and events promoting Spanish language and culture throughout the day. The Instituto Cervantes and the Embassy of Argentina presented a special one-night performance of Nancy Ábalos and the Compañía Argentina de Música that served as the closing event for this year’s edition.

The performers were led by singer, percussionist and composer, Nancy Ábalos. She was accompanied by pianist, Gabriel Luna and guitarist Carlos Irigoyen. Together, they didn’t just played tango music but also folk music from other Latin American countries like Peru, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. And not only was there music but also dancing as well courtesy of Nancy and her partner Ernesto Sunde who was dressed and danced as a gaucho at the beginning of the performance. While Nancy took a break, guitarist Neris Gonzalez joined Gabriel and Carlos for an instrumental number that turned into a jamming session with some wicked improvisation from Neris.

Clearly, the most anticipated numbers were the tango ones and the handful of Argentines among the audience had no reservations and joined along as Nancy performed the classic tango tunes popularized by Carlos Gardel like Por una cabeza. Nancy and Ernesto danced in a couple of tango numbers as well. I didn’t understand much of the lyrics and the spiels since they were in Spanish (Gabriel provided some English translation) but the passion and emotion coming from the music of the tango was felt and understood on that sultry evening.

Nancy Abalos and the Compañía Argentina de Música was organized by Instituto Cervantes de Manila as part of the Día del Libro. This event was in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in the Philippines, the Argentinean Embassy, Spanish Agency International Cooperation for Development (AECID) and the Delegation of the Europen Union in the Philippines.