Tonos del Sur
Tonos del Sur (Tonos), directed by Dr. Sarah Cranor, is comprised of historically-informed musicians who are passionate about sharing music from the Americas, especially lesser-known music in indigenous languages and by indigenous and anonymous composers. Tonos values partnerships with scholars, archivists, and musicologists, to help bring to modern audiences pieces from across Latin American archives that have not been heard in hundreds of years, most recently with Dr. Paul Feller working with the Metropolitan Cathedral archive, in Chile. Tonos also has a working partnership with Chiquitano Elders in Bolivia for pronunciation assistance when singing works from the Mission archives in Chiquitano-Besiró. A part of our budget is directly assigned to support the recording of audio files from these Elders- we are very grateful for their knowledge.
Tonos’ recent performance highlights include include “Lamentatio y Alegría”, contrasting settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah with dance music from across the Americas, and “Our Song is Missing”, an interactive children’s concert where participants learned some Quechua and Chiquitano-Besiró, danced to music from the Codex Trujillo del Perú, helped decipher manuscripts and iconography, and met baroque instruments all on a hunt for our missing music. Tonos performed at the Bloomington Early Music Festival 2025, all works by José Maurício Nunes Garcia, including the US premiere of Ladainha de Nossa Senhora das Dores (Brazil, 1794). Tonos has also performed at the Latin American Music Festival at the University of Illinois Chicago, with a program of modern premieres of villancicos from the Archives of the Santiago Cathedral, Chile in partnership with Paul Feller, presenting the modern premiere of “Music from New Spain Convents” from convent archives in Puebla, Mexico in a partnership with scholars Cesar Favila and Paul Feller for the 2023 Bloomington Early Music Festival, “María del Pueblo” to close the 2022 Bloomington Early Music Festival, guest ensemble with Christ Church Cathedral Indianapolis’ Chamber Music Series, and virtually through The Americas Society/Council of the Americas, and at the Berkeley Music Festival as part of the Young Performer’s Festival with Early Music America.
Tonos continues expanding project-based collaborations, spanning geographical and interdisciplinary areas, with an emphasis in exploring the challenges of colonization and its relationship to music. Tonos is a 501(c)3 non-profit under the fiscal umbrella of Fractured Atlas.
You can support Tonos’ work via a tax-deductible donation
through Fractured Atlas HERE
Tonos del Sur recent presentations
José Maurício Nunes Garcia: The Sound of Brazil's Classical Legacy
“Born in Rio de Janiero, the descendant of enslaved Black grandmothers on both sides of his family, José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) earned lasting renown as a celebrated composer, conductor, teacher, Catholic priest, and Chapelmaster of the Rio de Janeiro Cathedral. Known today as one of the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas both for his own compositional output and for introducing new musical styles to his home country—including his conducting the first performance of Mozart’s Requiem—Nunes Garcia left an indelible mark on Brazil’s musical landscape. Latin American Baroque specialists Tonos del Sur, one of Bloomington’s most beloved ensembles, present a wide-ranging showcase of music by this favored composer of the colonial kingdom of Portugal, starting with Nunes Garcia’s first known composition, Tota pulchra est Maria, and centering around the stunning Mass for Our Lady of Sorrows.”
-Bloomington Early Music Festival, May, 2025
Lamentatio y Alegría
“Tonos del Sur presents “Lamentatio y Alegría” as a way to view baroque-era music from across South America through two contrasting lenses: first through high cathedral settings of the Tenebrae text (the so-called “Lamentations of Jeremiah”), words of a prophet in exile millennia ago, written and performed by Spanish and Italian musicians living in the Americas, and second through music from the Moxos and Chiquitos missions, by and for indigenous musicians.
Our goal in presenting this program is to delight in this wonderful music within complex circumstances, and to use it as a lens to understand our past and to reflect on our future. Tonos invites the listener to connect with these poets and musicians from the far and near past, through a shared sense of grief, joy, sadness, dance, and wonder.”
-Sacred Music at 2nd Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, January, 2025
Our Song is Missing! A Musical Treasure Hunt Across Latin America
“Tonos del Sur is excited to share rhythms, songs, and languages from across Latin America, with music that is almost three hundred years old, all in a hunt to find our missing song! Tonos will introduce our baroque instruments, and highlight music in four languages. On our hunt for the missing song, you will have a chance to try some of the dances from Peru, preserved in the stunning Codex Trujuillo, and learn a little bit of Chiquiatno-Besiró and Quechua. This concert for music-lovers of all ages!”
-Children’s Concert at 2nd Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, January, 2025
Celebrating Chilean Music from the Colonial Villancico to the Nueva Canción
“Explore the sounds of secular and religious music preserved in codices, cathedrals, and missions from across the Americas from the 1600-1800s, sung in Quechua, Chiquitano, and Spanish. Tonos highlights the tremendous variety of rhythms and expressions preserved in these manuscripts, bringing them to life on baroque instruments for audiences today. We string to share this music in a lively and vibrant way, interpreting the often sparse and open-ended original source materials into a transformed experience, to convey the spirit of the way this music was conceived and performed in its day. We are especially excited to share modern premieres of villancicos from the Catedral Metropolitana archive in Santiago, Chile, in partnership with scholar Paul Feller.”
-Latin American Music Festival at the University of Illinois Chicago, and in Bloomington, Indiana, April 2024
Music from New Spanish Convents
“This exceptional Bloomington-born ensemble offers a rare glimpse into the worship of cloistered nuns in New Spain in this premiere performance of villancicos from the Sanchez Garza repertory in Mexico City, one of the largest and most important collections of music composed for and performed by women in Latin America. The program brings to life twelve villancicos out of some 400 liturgical manuscripts played by Santisima Trinidad Convent nuns in Puebla, Mexico, from the late 17th century through the end of the Spanish colonial era, in partnership with UCLA musicologist Cesar Favila and Northwestern musicology PhD candidate Paul Feller.”
-Bloomington Early Music Festival, 2023
Santiago Billoni and Friends
“Santiago Billoni’s music, recently rediscovered in the archives of the Durango Cathedral, Mexico, expresses virtuosity and beauty through unique musical language. Join Tonos, a historically-informed ensemble led by Sarah Cranor, as they share an evening of Billoni’s music and that of his contemporaries, including cantatas in indigenous languages, instrumental and religious music, all exploring rich musical soundscapes from across Latin America during the mid 1700s.”
-Christ Church Cathedral Chamber Concert Series, 2022
María del Pueblo
“In many ways the most central woman to Western classical music, the Virgin Mary has inspired some of the most poignant and beautiful musical moments in the genre. This is particularly striking in Baroque era music from Latin America, with the confluence of European musical aesthetics, indigenous languages, and complex fusion rhythms. An exploration of Marian devotion, María del Pueblo weaves together anonymous and improvised instrumental and vocal works, ranging from anonymous fragments written in Guaraní, to complete settings of the Latin Magnificat text, to examples of Marian devotion in a very local sense.”
-Bloomington Early Music Festival, 2022
