Musical duo Sol y Canto performed in the lobby of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. as part of their current Midwest tour. They performed a mix of old and new songs, as well as a couple of covers.
The duo was formed in 1994 by Puerto Rican and Argentine singer and percussionist Rosi Amador and New Mexican musician Brian Amador. They are married and have two children.
On their website, the duo said their musical project stemmed from a shared love of music and that they want to spread the richness of Latin American culture.
“My husband and I had already been in a musical group called Flor y Caña for ten years,” Rosi said in an interview conducted in Spanish. “Then in 1994, we made the decision that we would continue being musicians and started Sol y Canto.”
The performance began with a cover of “De Qué Callada Manera,” originally sung by Cuban musician Pablo Milanés. Accompanied by Brian’s guitar, the duo’s beautiful harmonies shone from the very beginning.
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The cover was followed by one of Brian’s original compositions, “Horizonte Adentro,” a piece inspired by nature, a recurring theme in their music. This song highlighted both of their voices, with the last verses almost seeming like a conversation between the two.
The duo works together in a business sense, as well as in marriage.
“I am the manager and the administrator, while Brian is mostly focused in the artistic direction and composing the songs,” Rosi said. “There is a lot of respect between us, which I think is fundamental in any couple, in any project, but especially in a creative one because each person has to value the other’s contribution.”
After the performance, Rosi said she and Brian met in 1984 at a cultural exchange program in Nicaragua with a group of artists.
They were the only bilingual and bicultural members of the group and connected over a shared love of Latin American music and a passion for their cultures. Rosi said this was “an encounter of souls” that happened organically.
The duo aren’t the only musicians in the family. Their daughter, Alisa Amador, is also involved in the music world and won the NPR Tiny Desk Contest in 2022.
Throughout the show, Sol y Canto used a variety of musical instruments, including the Peruvian cajón, a box-shaped percussion instrument, in several of their songs. Rosi, the percussionist, also played the cowbell, an instrument often featured in Latin music.
“During the pandemic, I learned to play the cajón through online tutorials — in fact, my husband gave one as a gift,” she said. “I integrated the instrument to our concerts beginning in 2021, and now I feel more comfortable playing it.”
Pete Shungu, professor in FAA, who has collaborated with the band before and helped organize the performance at KCPA, joined them on stage for a couple of songs to play the trumpet.
The duo had a strong repertoire throughout the first and second halves of the show, including “En tu orbita,” Brian’s latest composition, which will be released as a single in February and is part of their upcoming album, scheduled to come out fall 2024 for the band’s 30th anniversary.
Other highlights were “One Step Forward,” featuring Shungu on the trumpet and Rosi Amador on the cajón, as well as a bilingual cover of Osvaldo Farrés’s “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás,” known in English as “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” and popularized by Nat King Cole.
Throughout the performance, the duo held a strong connection with the public, even encouraging people to dance and sing along in either language.
For the songs in Spanish, which were the majority, the duo first introduced the pieces in English before singing. This is done, Rosi said, as an effort to include the non-Spanish speaking audience and help them not only enjoy the music but understand it.
“I hope that our music will serve its purpose, which is to share our Latin American culture with everyone, whether they are Latino or not,” Rosi said.
