The First Survey of Latin American Choral Music

This proposal respectfully requests a grant to support research travel to Latin America in 2018. I have been invited to write the first-ever comprehensive survey of Latin American choral music. While books and score anthologies about European choral music have promoted this repertoire throughout the world for decades, the absence of a parallel survey of Latin American choral music impedes the performance and in-depth study of this repertoire both internally in the region and internationally. Furthermore, the role of choral music in Latin American societies differs substantially from choral music for the European church and society. The survey will aim to understand Latin American choral masterworks through Latin American society, politics and economics, and in so doing, reveal original artistic contributions unique to the region. The grant will support air travel and ground transportation to examine archives in Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. My host institutions will support lodging.