Making our own history
What makes an idea becomes history over the years?
The answer is: action.
This was the premise I had in mind when I founded the first Stick Center in Argentina in 1995, also know as “The Stickistas” as the media press use to call us.
At that time, offering Stick concerts was a risky idea since nobody knew this instrument nor had seen it on stage. And more novel was a Stickistas Ensemble with 5, 6 and up to 10 musicians playing on stage or around the audience – it eventually became the signature of our Ensemble.
Stick Center Argentina – and later in Spain – began as a laboratory of ideas with jam between Stick players, but it eventually become into an artistic event, a proof that it was possible to make music with unusual elements.
The action led us to play concerts in different cities, playing on television, radio and appear in national newspapers despite not being a commercial product, as required by the rules of the music business. We played with Fish (Marillion), Jhon Wetton (King Crimson) or the prog band Caravan.
It was the first Stick Center in the world, and later its homologs in Europe and Usa among others. We continues organizing events, most of them in concerts “around the audience” as we started doing since 1995. In Spain, we created the Stick Camp, an European meeting for musicians who play this instrument.
The activities of Stick Center will remain forever as a page in the musical life of Argentina and Spain, and will forever be a reference for other musicians who make The Stick a musical way of expression.
Guillermo Cides
Stick Center director
