“Tembembe is the name of a river, taking form from several tributaries, weaving its way through our rugged Cuernavaca landscapes, and running by our rehearsal venue.

“Thus flows our culture, thus flows our work…”

The TEMBEMBE ENSAMBLE CONTINUO’s vision is to seek out, recreate, and share what intimately connects Baroque music with traditional music, both Mexican-specific and Latin American. They do this by breaking down historical and imaginary boundaries that have come to separate these worlds over time, thus bringing to bare new possibilities of appreciation, comprehension, and truly novel interpretation of this flourishing music.

Tembembe has tasked itself with bringing together the music of the Hispanic Baroque guitar and the music of Mexican and Latin American contemporary culture. The group explores the similarities between the instruments and the practices of each of these traditions, presenting all aspects of performance including music, song, and dance that bring alive the festive spirits of both the Hispanic fandango of the 17th century and contemporary traditional fandango.

Members of Tembembe are graduates of the National University (UNAM) in Mexico City, as well as having completed their studies in other music institutions in Mexico, Colombia, France, and the United States. Today they teach at the UNAM and the Centro Ollin Yoliztli. They organize workshops aimed at reconstructing and interpreting traditional instruments, as well as fandango jam sessions in the Morelos state communities. The Ensemble has been featured at numerous venues in Mexico, the Americas, Europe and Asia. They have recorded for UDC (Mexico), Sony BMG Deutsche harmonia mundi (Germany), and AliaVox (Spain).

Musicians from TEMBEMBE ENSAMBLE CONTINUO

Enrique Barona
huapanguera, leona, jarana jarocha 3a, mosquito, maracas, and pandero

Ulises Martínez
violín and guitarra de son

Leopoldo Novoa
marimbol, guitarra de son 3a, jarana huasteca, quijada de caballo, and arpa llanera