Luz Prado: the violin as you've never heard it before

Luz Prado is a violinist, there's no doubt about that. Her body has grown up playing the instrument, which is why her left shoulder is more open ... than the right. Among other things. But she is not a conventional violinist. She could perform great pieces from the classical repertoire, she is prepared and trained to do so, but on her journey towards Vivaldi and Paganini, she has asked questions that have altered her path. Why does it sound like this? Why must the arm move this way? What happens if the body posture is changed? The performer from Malaga seeks answers on the stage of the Teatro Cánovas in 'An Immense Violin,' a different kind of concert that will premiere on January 30 and 31 (8:00 PM, 20 euros).

Luz Prado has spent years questioning the conventions surrounding the violin. She finds it hard to believe that (almost) nothing has changed since Antonio Stradivari perfected the instrument about 300 years ago and it was considered "finished": it was like that and it was played like that. She rebels against this reality and, in her latest pieces, has pushed the limits of playing the violin, working with extra-long strings, double bows, or changing the violinistic gesture. Now, at the Teatro Cánovas, she takes a turn, looks back, and reconnects with the classic violin, the traditional one, but from another perspective.

The violinist poses questions that no one asks while learning in the conservatory. "You try to master the arm, master the finger, master the movement so it sounds the way you want, but you don't ask why. And if I move it another way, how does it sound? If instead of thinking about the final sound I think about the movement of the arm, what sound does it give me?" she details from Murcia, where she is in a residency at AADK (Artists Residency La Negra) after having developed the creation process at the Cánovas, with co-production from the Junta de Andalucía (through production support). Prado does not shy away from the great works of the classical repertoire, she likes them, "but it is in the path of trying to play those pieces where all the other paths open up to me."

She questions why the arm must move in that way and explores what happens when she changes the body posture

This new work she presents in Malaga "focuses a lot on the body of the musician and the instrument itself, on the relationships of dependency and identification with each other," she points out. The violin is in its own gestuality, "it goes beyond the object itself," and it has modified her body. Its sound also changes depending on where it is played: it is not the same in a room as outdoors, "it transforms through the space it passes through." Placing the violin alone, as the main protagonist, in a theater multiplies its dimension. Hence the title of the proposal.

'An Immense Violin' "is a concert for a violin that fills an entire theater or for a theater that vibrates like a violin," reads the description of the show. And although it is defined as a concert, because somehow it must be named, everything that passes through Luz Prado's hands ends up being something "hybrid" closer to live arts than to strictly musical. "A weird concert," she adds with a laugh.

Master of improvisation on the violin, in this case, she follows a path already traced in which almost everything is written. But there is no repertoire as such. "Everything is music composed by me, from my own body." The program is not a succession of movements that trigger applause when they end. It is more a long suite, a constant journey different from what the audience expects from a violin. "I work with the movement of the body itself, because the movement itself already sounds. Without having the instrument, you see someone moving as if playing the violin and it sounds even though the violin does not," explains the creator from Malaga.

In 'An Immense Violin,' Luz Prado plays with the bow and with the gestures of her body, "as it must be played." She does not change the traditional parameters, but turns the act of playing in a particular way into a conscious act. And yet, she assures there is still much to learn about the instrument. "The more paths you open, the more you see the abyss," she concludes.