Eddy Navia, Sukay, and Pachamama Band
After three decades of touring internationally, renown Bolivian composer & musician Eddy Navia and Sukay's founder Quentin Navia have established a home at Peña Pachamama, a world music center dedicated to PACHAMAMA, the living Mother Earth.
Joined by other great musical groups, musicians and dancers, they create a little piece of South American carnaval all year long.
Eddy Navia
Born in Bolivia, Eddy Navia is one of the greatest exponents and master virtuosos of the Charango, a traditional Bolivian stringed instrument. He became Pachamama and Sukay's artistic director in 1989, and writes most of their new material.
Navia was a founding member of the legendary Bolivian group Savia Andina, with whom he has 35 recordings. Savia Andina was a major force in bringing Andean music into mainstream South American culture and toured throughout the world, even hitting the Top 40 charts.
Eddy Navia was nominated for two Latin Grammys, and has 8 other solo recordings.
Quentin Navia
Quentin was a touring musician and founding member of SUKAY, one of the most celebrated Andean music ensembles in North America. The group performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Calgary Center for the Performing Arts, The Smithsonian Institution, and thousands of venues in between.
With a background in graphic design, Quentin worked at WPIX TV 11 in New York City and later became an Art Director for American Conservatory Theatre under William Ball. When describing her first experience in hearing the zampoñas or panpipes being played, Quentin explains “That sound went right to the heart of me.” Quentin & her legendary husband, Eddy Navia, opened Peña Pachamama in the late nineties and it became a gathering place for West Coast artists, musicians, poets, dancers and performers.
Music Reviews
"Sukay breathes new life into traditional sounds. The sounds of Sukay have traveled through nearly 5,000 years, thousands of miles and the barriers of language and understanding, in order to produce a lush blend of textures, tones and styles that continually evokes the culture of the Andes… With deep sounding pipes, haunting flutes and fast-paced rhythms played on a guitar-like instrument made from the shell of an armadillo, SUKAY creates an ethereal, pulsating sound that fills listeners with the energy and strength of the Andes.
Like an orchestra, Sukay draws from a broad palette of exotic sounds: the deep, sharp, airy lasts of the medieval-sounding toyos (pan pipes with graduated tubes up to 5 feet long); the high, vocal inflections of the kena (notched flute); the shimmering ring of the charango and the resonant tones and muted percussive drive of the classical guitar. Together, they produce a sound that charms with its richness and haunts with an ever-present sense of history.
What sets this group apart from other Andean groups is their willingness to bring in other instruments and add musical layers that breath new life into their traditional sound. In this performance, they included bongo drums, an electric mandolin and violin." —Edmund S. Tijerina Journal Sentinel
"Dazzling the listener with a display of complete musicality that defied the limitations of their instruments…an overflow-capacity crowd on its feet in a wash of thunderous applause." —Tucson Citizen
"A lush blend of textures, tones, rhythms and styles that continually evoke the culture of the Andes." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Reminiscent of Zamfir on a caffeine overload!" —Calgary Sun
"Music from the heart that you'll never forget." —Michigan Daily