Born in Mexico City in 1961, Claudia Martínez studied music from the age of 9, in the renowned school of Cesar Tort. She later enrolled in the National Conservatory, where she studied classical guitar and singing. She was a pupil of the composers Mario Arturo Ramos and Amparo Rubin, studied classical guitar with Sergio Cacheux, popular Latin American guitar with Esther Echevema, and perfected her vocal technique under the guidance of Guadalupe Molina.
After years of diversity of musical experiences, as a singer for the ancient music consort Convivium Musicum, as a vocalist in Margie Bermejo’s musical show, and in many other projects, ranging from Renaissance music to progressive rock, Claudia moved on to create her own style.
She discovered the music of the Zapotec Indians while working in a research team directed by ethnomusicologist Violeta Torres Medina, which led her into a ten-year personal research on indigenous and traditional sources in addition to the Indian languages, resulting in her first recording project: Xquenda.
After a great success with this record and show, and a second release of Xquenda, under the label Global Entertainment, she decided to have a thorough change in her musical direction. Her work announced an important change of direction in the contemporary interpretation of traditional music.
The Xquenda show includes lullabies to sing for hope, healing and prayer songs, sung by medicine women to cure the soul. Music and dances with drums to ask the gods for rain for the thirsty fields. Songs of love to become a flower and a door opening into the sky. Star games to accompany our children. Xquenda is a Zapotecan word that means “our tutelar spirit, our other self”, and Mexico’s indigenous music is Claudia’s other self.
The Conehua show consists in a collection of Afro-Mexican songs, Nahuatl lullabies, and Tzotzil poem-songs from Chiapas, showing the spirit and the cosmic understanding of the Mexican Indian mothers, in a contemporary fusion rich in modern rhythmic patterns and harmony. Conehua means, in the Nahuatl language, “motherly self”.
Claudia Martínez later changed her artistic name to Tonana. The album Tonana, released in 2000 focuses on universal feminine creativity, inspired by poetry in the Tzotzil language with music by Tonana. During the performance, the spectators join her on a fantastic musical journey that includes lullabies in Nahuatl, Afromestizo songs, centered on the life and death cycle. This magical show is enhanced by interesting sonorous possibilities of contemporary global musical trends. With this project, she was invited to perform at CINARS, Montreal, Canada (2000).
The creative process for Lazos (Links), her third CD, started during the summer of 2002 in Montreal, Canada. It includes authors and their different cultures. African, a Brazilian, an artist from Iran, and a native Indian from Mexico are part of the working team producing this work
Discography:
Xquenda
Tonana (Urtext Digital Classics, 2000)
Lazos (2002)
Teotithuacan Templo de Voces (Milan, 2009)
The Mystery of Mayan Chant (Milan, 2015)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
