ABOUT
GROUP HISTORY
Huayllipacha (pronounced: Why-Lee-Pacha) was conceived in 1987 by several Peruvian youths from the Andes. As a tribute to our culture, and with respect, honor and admiration of our Ancestors, we decided to name the group using the ancient language of Inca-Quechua. “Huaylli” means “song of triumph”, and “Pacha” means “the earth”. To simplify, “Singing to the Earth”.
Along our collective journeys, and accompanied by many dreams and illusions, several members of the group decided to find their own path in Europe and North America. Shortly after few members of the group settled in the U.S.A., Huayllipacha experienced a loss of valor in the death of a founder of the group who was living in Germany, Hugo Felix Montoya. It was this profound loss that spawned the rebirth and rededication of Huayllipacha by the remaining musicians established in Northern California since 1994.
At first, it was a duo of two brothers, Fredy and Moises. In 1998, as we traveled and performed all over the west coast of U.S.A., we were joined by two more of our siblings, David and Juan, who had been performing in our native country of Peru. The combined musical talent of our family, and the love for our music, brought the strength to continue with this noble and difficult task of preserving our musical culture.
GROUP PROPOSAL
One of Huayllipacha’s proposals is to form a band that maintains the traditional musical style of the Andean region of Peru and other South American countries as well. In our performances, we have included songs that were created and played by our ancestors using native traditional instruments such as the sikus, quenas, and bombo. In this way, we allow people to have a direct approach and learn about a part of the musical art of the native people of South America. We want to continue spreading and sharing this type of musical art in honor of our ancestors and never allow it to perish because of the love we have for the indigenous culture from South America.
Huayllipacha also believes that as a musicians we can be influenced by other musical genres. However, we are aware of these influences and instead of rejecting it we decided to musically grow along with it. Now, along our native instruments, we use modern instruments such as the drum kit and electric bass. This adds a new contemporary Andean style to our repertoire. Furthermore, having these contemporary instruments in our performances has allowed us to play songs from well-known bands such as The Beatles, Eagles, Kansas, and Paul Simon, just to name a few. Getting to know about other music genres and a little bit about other bands career, has helped us to evolve and expanded our musical style and has also made us grow as a musicians.
Finally, we are grateful to have the opportunity to continue with our musical career and be able to pursue our ideas and dreams. We will always honor the traditional music of the Andes, as well as from other regions in South America. Embracing our style, the music of Huayllipacha will always come from our heart and soul. And we will keep sharing it with the people of the Earth.
Sincerely,
Juan, Fredy & David