Canto Caló fundraiser - we’re making an album!

Friction Quartet and mezzo-soprano Melinda Martinez Becker are some of my dearest collaborators who have inspired some of my favorite projects. In particular, they have commissioned and premiered my string quartet El Correcaminos and my song cycle Canto Caló. We have seed funding and a recording date booked in December, but we need your help!

This would be the first full album of my chamber music, and this project is particularly special because all the themes come back to my home state of New Mexico. We have support from Innova Recordings (The American Composers Forum), NewMusicUSA (Creator Development Fund), and the Alice M. Ditson Recording Fund, but we are still short a few thousand dollars to get the album over the finish line.

We are hoping to raise at least $7,000 to supplement what we currently have, which includes artist fees, engineer fees, editing/mixing/mastering fees, and funds for basic album artwork. If we are able to raise our stretch goal of $9,000 then we can also add basic video shooting and editing, compensate travel costs to do the recording, and commission more elaborate album artwork.

All your gifts are tax deductive (via Friction Quartet’s donation portal). Every donation, no matter how small, is meaningful. Thank you. Additionally, we have some perks for other donation amounts:

Donate $25 or more – album download code when it’s released
Donate $50 or more – above + download link for high quality .wav files (better than streaming!)
Donate $100 or more – above + personal letter signed by composer
Donate $250 or more – above + signed score with all artists of either Canto Caló OR El Correcaminos shipped to you (your choice!)
Donate $500 or more – above + both signed scores!

I can’t thank you enough for your support.

-       Nicolás Lell Benavides

El Correcaminos was commissioned by Friction Quartet in 2019, and culminated in a string quartet that has since been played all over the country. It’s one of my most popular pieces and explores the symbol of the Roadrunner and what it meant to different people living in and moving to New Mexico throughout history. Friction Quartet has performed it many times, including at the Music in Corrales series in New Mexico. It’s one of my most popular works, having also been performed by Lyris Quartet at Brightwork newmusic’s Tuesdays @ Monkspace, Calder Quartet at the La Jolla Summerfest, Haven String Quartet on their chamber series, and the Hausmann Quartet at the Del Sol International Composers Symposium. Having Friction Quartet the definitive recording would be a beautiful homecoming for the work.

Canto Caló (I sing Caló / Caló songs) was originally commissioned by New Moon Duo and conceived at Avaloch Farm in New Hampshire and has since been arranged for Melinda and Friction Quartet. Caló is the language created by Pachucos in the Southwest through California, commonly associated with mambo dancing, zoot suit wearing Chicanos from El Paso to California, but it’s become a national movement with language, fashion, food, and art still taking inspiration from it decades later. It’s inspired by New Mexican grandparents, specifically my two grandfathers Eduardo (Eddie) Garcia and Gilberto (Gilbert) Benavides as well as Melinda’s grandmother Melinda Stella Martinez Lane. Writing these songs was something of a meditation on their influence on our lives, and it uses original texts by me and Melinda as well as a lullaby (El Zapatero) and an original lyric written by my grandfather (Canción de guerra) when he was drafted into the Korean War.