AMIDST THE PANDEMIC, PABLO HELGUERA SINGS FOR YOU

Almost 20 years ago in 2001, as part of the Brewster Project, organized by Regine Basha, Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Christopher Ho in New York, I stood outside a bar and did singing telegrams for free, armed with a guitar and a cell phone. I was supposed to do it for half an hour, but I was there for 7 hours, with an endless line of participants.

I remember having a bunch of phone cards that I used to call places as far as Belgrade. This became my first social practice project. Recently, in conversations with the amazing John Spiak from Grand Central in Santa Ana (California), we thought we would revive The Singing Telegram Show project to reach out to those who are currently isolated, and/or wanting to reach out to loved ones.

If you want to send a free singing telegram to someone you care about, please email us at grandcentral@fullerton.edu. I can sing romantic opera, zarzuela, Hollywood classics, Broadway Tunes, Mexican folk songs, lullabies and Neapolitan songs. As I told the LA Times, I am not Enrico Caruso, but I am free, and I am alive (and happy to be so). If you feel sad or lonely at home or want to cheer someone you love, contact us and we will deliver -promise! (and it is free).

Pablo Helguera

MUSIC LIST

ZARZUELA
No Puede Ser | La Tabernera del Puerto (Sorozábal)

ROMANTIC OPERA
O Mio Babbino Caro | Gianni Schicchi (Puccini)
Voi che Sapete | Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)

NEAPOLITAN SONGS
Mari, Mari
Non Ti Scordar di Me | Casalino
Torna a Surriento

SHAKER SONGS
Bam Bam
I Love to See the Wheels in Motion
Living Building
Way Down in the Valley
Watch Ye
Simple Gifts

RENAISSANCE
In a Garden so Green | Scottish, 17th century

ROMANTIC
Una Furtiva Lagrima | Il Elisir D’Amore (Donizetti)
Long Time Ago | Aaron Copland
Strangers in the Night | Frank Sinatra
They Can’t Take that Away from Me | Frank Sinatra

OTHER CLASSICS
Paris | Edith Piaf

AMERICAN FOLK SONGS
Home on the Range | Trad. American song
Deep River | African-American Spiritual
Shenandoah | Trad. American song
Come Thou Fount of every Blessing | Hymn, Robert Robinson (1758)

Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, 1971) is a New York based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art and performance. Helguera’s work focuses in a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances and written fiction. His work as an educator has usually intersected his interest as an artist, making his work often reflects on issues of interpretation, dialogue, and the role of contemporary culture in a global reality.