As part of the first anniversary of the Centro Cultural Contraviento, a special night was organized, with the performance of the distinguished Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta. This was the first international visit at the cultural center, and it far exceeded all expectations.
The performance by the widely acclaimed artist as part of the series Thursdays at Contraviento brought a huge audience to the auditorium. The attendees were curious to see the famous artist play and how he performed in such iconic genres as Bossa Nova.
Carrying a pastel-colored guitar, the artist sat in the middle of the stage, flanked by two performers, the Portuguese Sandro Norton to his left and the Argentinian Juampy Juárez to his right. The show was part of the Guitar Elite Summit.
Toninho proved why he is a star. Winner of the Latin Grammy award in 2020, for the album Belo Horizonte, Toninho has collaborated and recorded with the most famous artists in Brazil, such as Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, Gal Costa, Sergio Méndez, María Bethania and Milton Nascimento, among others.
With only a few chords of his guitar, the musician was able to show that he knew what he was doing. In the beginning, they gifted the audience with a brief, sweet instrumental melody as a way of introduction and warm up.
After that, the audience enjoyed almost an hour and a half of melodic sensitivity. Toninho says that he has an “orchestral vision of music,” where the guitar “converses with everything else that happens around.” Undoubtedly, the audience in Contraviento was a part of that environment.
As the night went by, and using a more than acceptable mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, Sandro Norton presented an Argentinian classic, an evident nod to the audience: Libertango. Using three guitars to interpret Piazzolla could only bring one result: a standing ovation.
Next, Toninho and Juárez left the stage. Norton performed a peculiar song filled of hits to the frets and no strums, another proof of how versatile the show was.
Back on stage, Toninho showed his influence in jazz and Brazilian popular music. After that, the show turned into a musical journey. “Music is a universe of colors and emotions,” expressed the artist, and it’s impossible to deny the colors he painted in the auditorium.
Serene and with a subtle virtue, Horta offered the audience from Rosario an exceptional show in the Centro Cultural Contraviento.
