Bringing Andes Tunes to the Arbat

Back home in Peru, Miguel Perez never imagined himself a musician.


But in Russia, as so often happens, an unforeseen opportunity suddenly presented itself.


While a computer science student at Patrice Lumumba University, Perez, 25, a year ago met other Latin Americans studying in Moscow who had already formed a folk ensemble performing on Moscow's streets. Perez took up guitar and double bass to enter the group, known as Illare'q.


Fellow group member Ever Pojas Huaman said that none of the group has had formal training in music, but added that "every peasant in our countries learns how to play an instrument. We have lots of musical holidays and carnivals, some of them lasting for a month and a half."


The band of 10 musicians has been regularly bringing the Andes to the Arbat over the past five years.


With the sampona, a mouth organ of several pipes, a charango, a small 10-string guitar, and a wooden flute known as a quena, backed up with guitar and double bass, the band plays melodies from their homes faraway.


Mostly in Spanish, but also in the Indian language of Quechua, the songs tell of the misery caused by the Spanish Conquest, describe the beauty of their native land or echo the eternal theme of love gone wrong.


The band's name means "sunrise" in Quechua and is a reminder of a famous spot in Peru where an optical illusion makes it appear that the sun between the mountains descends at sunrise.


Among the rockers and the jazz acts and the others buskers of the Arbat, the ebony-haired South Americans, in their ponchos and waist-coats, make a distinctive act.


"People from various countries stop and listen to us," Huaman said.


The band's alternately plaintive and joyful sounds can also be heard occasionally in the hallways of the Okhotny Ryad metro, where the intriguing melodies usually attract a crowd.


Illare'q musicians have developed a following of enthusiastic fans, who venture out to the Arbat in any weather specially to listen to the group.


Band members come and go, but the repertoire is steady at about 50 songs, including folk songs and current hits from Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela.


Huaman said the musicians regularly receive cassettes from home with the latest Peruvian and Bolivian hits to keep their repertoire up-to-date. It takes as little as 15 minutes to learn a new song, said Huaman, 25, who is studying mathematics in Moscow and whose wife is Russian.


Huaman said the group's earnings on the Arbat, for playing six to eight hours a gig, are 30,000 rubles per day per musician. The only thing that puts a damper on their enthusiasm is the snow, he said.


Though the Arbat is their musical home, Illare'q also tours. They have performed in Finland, Poland and Germany during summer vacations.


The band has recorded four cassettes with the help of friends at recording studios in Russia and in Germany, which are sold at their performances.


Huaman said Illare'q considers friends rather than rivals the newly arrived competition -- a Latin American group recently came to town from Odessa.


When their Moscow gigs are up, most of Illare'q's members will lay down their instruments.


"I am going to come back to Peru when I qualify and work as a lawyer there," said Luis, 25, who declined to give his last name. "That's what I came here for -- to study law."