NIU’s Andean Ensemble will play and sing music of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela at a concert Sunday in the Music Building Recital Hall.

The ensemble, directed by School of Music Chairman Don Funes, will perform music that blends elements of the Inca tradition with those brought from Europe by the Spanish conquerors.

The free concert will be held at 3 p.m. and will last about an hour.

The concert will feature instruments unique to the Andean region, Funes said.

The ensemble will play instruments such as the Charango, a ten-string lute made from the shell of an armadillo and the neck of a guitar; and the Bajo sexto, a 12-string guitar which plays lower than a traditional 12-string guitar. Vertical flutes, panpipes and various percussion instruments also will be played, Funes said.

“Playing all of those instruments involves lots of technical adjustment,” Funes said. “I showed most of the ensemble members how to play them myself.”

Funes owns about half the instruments used by the ensemble, and the rest are NIU-owned, he said.

“I bought the instruments from a Peruvian teacher I studied with in New York, who builds Andean instruments,” Funes said.

While on sabbatical last year, Funes studied with Guillermo Guerrereo, a prominent Peruvian musician who taught Funes how to play traditional Andean instruments.

Funes said he has applied for a grant to travel to Peru this summer, to study and tape various dances performed only in villages there.

“Since so much of the music we play is associated with dancing, the tapes would enhance our performances,” Funes said.

Funes said he also is studying Spanish. “A lot of the songs we play are in Spanish,” Funes said. “I’d like to have an idea what we’re singing about.”

The ensemble has performed at various grade schools and at NIU’s International Education Week, Funes said.