Mexico often enchants people with its magnificent landscapes and rich culture. Romayne Wheeler He is one of many characters who fell before the surreal charms of our country. He knows his story here.
Wheeler is a renowned concert pianist originally from the United States. His music resonated throughout the world. However, the also researcher has been living among his new family for several decades: The Rarámuri of the Sierra Tarahumara.
Romayne Wheeler’s musical career
The American musician is originally from St. Helena, in California (United States). From a young age he recognized his vocation for music, since he learned to play the piano in his childhood.
In their melodies you can recognize that strong influence of the indigenous and latin american cultures. This is largely due to his family, since his father worked for the United Nations and was a missionary Seventh-day Adventist Church.
For this reason, since he was little, Wheeler had contact with Latin American and indigenous communities in Arizona. However, later vHe lived for a while in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
In the year 1961, the American musician undertook a trip to Austria to study music full time. Years later he obtained his title as a composer from the Vienna University of Music. And by 1972, he qualified as a concert pianist at the Vienna Conservatory of Music.
Since then, he has offered concerts in more than 50 countries, including Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Thailand, Mexico, Peru, to name a few.
However, his life took a 360 degree turn when in the 1980s Wheeler met the Rarámuris in the Sierra de Chihuahua, in northern Mexico.
Wheeler’s arrival in the Sierra Tarahumara
This event occurred almost accidentally, as it was possible because unfavorable weather conditions prevented the composer from going to the Hopi communities in the Grand Canyon. Due to this situation, Wheeler had to stay in a hotel in Albuquerque.
It was in that place where he discovered the Rarámuri people. The first meeting arose when seeing what the lens of Reverend Luis Verplacken captured for an edition of National Geographic magazine.
The photos of the Sierra Tarahumara that were published in the magazine were extremely inspiring for Wheeler. For this reason, he decided to learn about this town that lives in the region of the Copper Canyon, in Chihuahua.
Upon arriving with the Rarámuri people, the concert pianist’s intention was to document indigenous Mexican music for the Vienna University of Music. Over time, however, Wheeler marveled more and more at the Rarámuri culture.
the new family
In the early 1990s, Romayne Wheeler gave in to the richness, strength, and simplicity of life in the Sierra Tarahumara. At that moment, she decided that her new home was next to the Rarámuris.
Since then he has lived in the Sierra and has been active offering concerts. The funds raised thanks to his music are used in works that benefit the Rarámuri community. For this he created a foundation through which he offers education and health to the people.
Today he is one of them. He has his home on the side of a ravine, which is known as “El Nido del Águila” or place of the piano. He also has several godchildren, but among all of them he stands out Romeyno Gutierrez Lunawho followed in the footsteps of his godfather.
Romeyno studied at the Chihuahua Conservatory and to this day has given concerts in Mexico, the United States and Europe.
Do you want to know more about Romenyo Gutiérrez? Here we tell you
This is how life accidentally led the North American soloist to give in to the wonderful life of the Rarámuri people, to the point of becoming one of the community.