US embassy cable - 05LIMA4393

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LIMA 004393 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR R JCURTIN, WHA/PDA MDCONNERS/GADAMS/SLEBENS, 
ECA/PE JNELSON, ECA/PE/C/CU DSCHUMAN 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, PE 
SUBJECT: Tim Laughlin Jazz Quartet Tours Peru 
 
 
1.  "We can't go back to our homes right now, so we thought 
we would bring a little bit of our home town- New Orleans- 
to the good people of Peru."  With that simple but powerful 
statement, clarinetist Tim Laughlin captured the hearts of 
audiences during a four-city concert tour of Peru Oct. 1-11, 
2005.  Appearing in Arequipa, Cusco, Lima and Huancayo, the 
Tim Laughlin Quartet underscored the perseverance and 
vitality of the cultural contributions of New Orleans while 
thanking the government and people of Peru for their support 
to the victims of hurricane Katrina. 
 
2.  Tim Laughlin, Tom McDermott, Bradford Truby and Ron 
Magli proved to be excellent representatives of New Orleans 
and the United States as well as consummate professional 
musicians.  In master classes with music students, meetings 
with local contacts and interviews with the media, all 
members of the quartet were articulate, accessible and 
gracious, exhibiting a genuine interest in the Peruvians 
they met.  Their energy, obvious dedication to their music 
and their city and willingness to share their expertise 
especially impressed music students during the master 
classes. 
 
3.  PAS Lima arranged the Laughlin Quartet tour together 
with bi-national centers in Arequipa, Cusco and Huancayo and 
with the University of Lima and American Chamber of Commerce 
in Lima.  A high point of the tour came on October 6, when 
the quartet played at the Ambassador's residence in Lima as 
the featured act for a fund-raiser for Katrina victims 
organized by the American Chamber of Commerce of Peru.  Half 
of the proceeds of the fund-raiser went to victims of the 
recent earthquake in northern Peru. 
 
4.  Program details: 
 
a.  Arequipa- BNC Arequipa arranged a concert on October 1 
in the Municipal Theater of the city, capacity about 900. 
The enthusiastic, standing room only (SRO) crowd of students 
and BNC contacts called the quartet back on stage for an 
encore and gave them a standing ovation. 
b.  Cusco- BNC Cusco held a morning master-class and evening 
concert in their auditorium on October 3.  The SRO concert 
audience of students, local officials and BNC associates 
reached over 400. 
c.  Lima- The quartet held four master classes, two at local 
international high-schools (both with a majority of Peruvian 
students), one at the National Music Conservatory and 
another with the National Youth Jazz Association.  On 
October 6 and 7, the group appeared in two concerts, the 
first being the AMCHAM-sponsored fund-raiser for Katrina and 
Peruvian earthquake victims at the Ambassador's residence. 
Over 250 top government and business leaders attended.  On 
October 7, the University of Lima provided their 800-seat 
auditorium free of charge for a concert that also included 
the youth jazz band of the Peruvian Association of New 
Music.  Crowd again was full capacity and enthusiastic. 
d.  Huancayo- The quartet traveled to the central Andean 
city of Huancayo for a concert on October 9 arranged with 
the local BNC.  A capacity crowd of over 200 filled the 
BNC's new auditorium. 
 
5.  Media coverage:  Press coverage was ample.  On October 
9, influential daily, El Comercio's Saturday supplement 
magazine "Somos" (circulation 116,200) carried a two-page 
article with photos of the quartet, and, on October 8, 
centrist daily Peru21 (circulation 54,500) carried a story 
on Tim Laughlin's views on the future of jazz in New Orleans 
and on the October 7 University of Lima concert.  Cable TV 
Channel N carried the October 7 Lima concert live and 
repeated segments of the concert throughout the weekend of 
October 8-9 (Note that Channel N is carried on cable systems 
throughout Peru.)  Provincial newspaper and television also 
covered the program in Arequipa, Cusco and Huancayo. 
 
6.  Program Goals addressed:  The Tim Laughlin Quartet 
provided the USG and mission with an outstanding vehicle 
through which to express our sincere thanks to the 
government and people of Peru for their help and expressions 
of concern following Hurricane Katrina.  The program also 
reinforced the message that although New Orleans and the 
American south have suffered a grievous blow, the people of 
the region will persevere, exhibiting the same energy and 
creativity evident in their most famous cultural 
contribution, jazz. 
 
7.  PAS Lima wishes to thank WHA/PD for including us in this 
tour, and we especially want to thank Blakeney Lowe for her 
excellent work arranging the administrative details of the 
program. 
 
STRUBLE