Text: Stefan Gurtner
Photos: Courtesy of the interviewee
Teresa Laredo, who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, was stranded in Bolivia for more than a year due to the pandemic. At the end of that time, I was able to visit her in her apartment in Cochabamba. Much of her living room is filled with a huge piano. Teresa Laredo is one of the few music performers who made an international career.
The main topic of this interview, however, was not his career as a piano soloist, but his work in music therapy, in which he also excelled. He also shares some of his philosophical concepts, secrets for his health and longevity, like this one: “We are actors in a play and at some point we have to leave the scene, perhaps to reach true life.”
– In your biographical note it is striking that you grew up in a family of renowned musicians…
My father played the mandolin in his ear and claimed to have an orchestra built into it. He whistled symphonies with perfect pitch.
His first cousins, uncle Lucho and uncle Eduardo, were also gifted in music. Eduardo, in addition to being a pianist, was a wonderful painter, actor and choreographer for the ballet Bolivia that he created. His son Jaime is a renowned international violinist since he won the first world prize in Brussels at the age of 17.
Uncle Lucho’s son Carlos was also a violinist of great quality who worked in famous orchestras such as the Gulbenkian in Portugal, the Basilea orchestra in Switzerland and the Mulhouse orchestra in France. I must not forget to mention my dear uncle Armando Palmero, cellist and composer, who guided and supported me in my vocation since I was a child.
– Under what circumstances did you travel to Europe to study music?
My first trip to Europe was to Rome, when I was 17 years old, I wasn’t even a high school graduate. A competition organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was held for a scholarship from the prestigious Santa Cecilia Academy. I won first place and stayed there for two years, falling in love with everything around me.
Finishing my scholarship, I met Magda Tagliaferro at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. She was an ambassador of French music. She told me that I had international stature and she invited me to Paris to attend her academy. She introduced me to Simón Patino’s daughter, Luzmila Patiño de Boisrouvray, who gave me a four-year scholarship.
I was housed in an old convent with the congregation of German nuns, who were part of my school education in Bolivia for ten years. Later I found out that I lived in a historic convent, because Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” was filmed there, with Gerard Depardieu in the role of Jean Valjean.
To go to the academy I had to cross the entire city, it took an hour and a half. I couldn’t even eat well, those were hard times, and I barely lived in a small room with no heating. Between 1958 and 1962, I learned everything that is studied in a music academy. I had extraordinary teachers, I went to the summer courses at the International Academy of Nice, I took advantage of everything I could to train myself. To earn a few francs, I worked on Sundays playing.
When I returned to Bolivia, I participated in the Patiño Foundation contest for the degree of “very virtuoso”, and I won the scholarship to continue studying at the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland.
Not only did you achieve a brilliant international career as a pianist, but you also practice music therapy.
-What exactly?
By being able to go to the bottom of a frequency, depending on the instrument you use, whether in a group or privately, you can work as a mediator. It is not you who heals, it is the vibrations called Hertz (hertz in Spanish) that emanate a healing, energizing and balancing energy for your patients and for yourself. If the person is receptive and relaxes enough, it can eliminate very serious problems
-When and with whom did you start doing music therapy?
During the period that I got my diploma of virtuosity in Geneva, with the teacher Louis Hiltbrand, at the same time I had the opportunity to participate in music therapy seminars at the Dalcroze Institute in the years 63 to 65 and in Strasbourg with a Japanese teacher.
Later, in Geneva itself, I was able to work in the psychiatric center and in a home for the blind adults, exercising my vocation. I also had the opportunity to take care of children with Down syndrome in Cuba. It was a fabulous experience, because as you know they are especially gifted for music. Also at the Sydney Conservatory I learned different healing techniques. Later, he gave seminars for seven years at a castle in Bourgogne, France.
In Bolivia I worked at the center for the deaf in Vinto, I taught courses at the Portales center of the Patiño Foundation in Cochabamba and also in Santa Cruz, at the La Paz conservatory, in Tarija and in Sucre. In Cochabamba I helped for several years with an association that cares for very poor elderly women, Las purisquiris, who beg in the streets or sell sweets or newspapers; we dance, sing and live restorative music with joy and faith. I also had, as you know, an interesting experience in the Tres Soles project that works with socially marginalized children. All of this was very rich in positive experiences and exciting encounters!
Tell me about a special experience you had with music therapy…
Recounting certain healings where I was a mediator would take up a lot of space. I worked with cancer patients, with deaf people, however, I will tell you about two outstanding examples.
I remember that there was a neighboring lady who had to receive head surgery for clots, she called me. After three sessions, the doctor who wanted to operate on her, when performing the studies, discovered that there were no more clots, there was no sign!
Another special case is José André who was born blind. When he arrived at my house, he said that my house was beautiful… I tried to teach him about the four elements, improvising and doing music therapy when he was five years old. I gave him the courage to go ahead, his parents supported him a lot, but the most beautiful thing happened with the child. He learned with me to play the piano. Being that this time was generous for both of us, he now resides in Washington and offers me to participate in his concerts, gratitude being an incentive that fills the heart. Gratitude is a balm.
– Apart from your work as a pianist and music therapist, you have also published books with poetry and personal experiences. Sometimes it has been said that poetry is closely related to music…
I have always felt a very strong vibratory communion between sound and between the rhythm and the melody it creates. It is beautiful to be able to compare a musical work with the rhythm of a poem. My parents loved books, in my family we greatly appreciate literature, as well as music, being natural with the same vibration of beauty and harmony. If we had a good grade at school, they always gave us a book, appreciating music, literature and also nature. It is the perfect fusion of expression of beauty of these arts that people can enjoy. Both fill my heart.
What is the recipe for your extraordinary vitality at your age?
I just gave a lesson to my 11-year-old neighbor and it seems clear to me that my recharging of energy is due to realizing that I still have a lot to share about my love for music and the happiness of transmitting it, adapting to the needs or abilities of the student , of any age! It is a passion that works miracles. Giving is receiving…
Each being has different ways to find balance, strength or health. For me, spirituality was the path of stability through so many tests that life imposed on me without adhering to any dogma, happily accepting the parcels of truth that I could integrate to fulfill my destiny of evolution with flexibility and gratitude.
I will never forget the lesson in simplicity my father taught me when I was a little girl. He took me to the grave of his friend Man Lawn, saying, “Do you see this white fir? My friend has wanted to become that, saying: “Make me a tree and instead of thoughts… I will give flowers”.
For me it is important to have integrated Christian values. My name is Justa Teresa, I was born right in front of the convent of Santa Teresa. I think it is part of the legacy that we mestizos have. I am grateful to be from both worlds, for my maternal grandmother who was Spanish and my paternal grandmother of Potosí origin. Both had a great human conscience, nothing racist, deeply human. I am grateful for everything that life gave me and privileged that you have listened to me.
Teresa Laredo, extraordinary woman dedicated to music and music therapy