Olga Carrasco
Be dazzled by her moves and rhythms as Olga delights you with her Chinchin performance
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Olga was born in 1987 and had an early beginning in classic and contemporary dance. She received her Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts at the Universidad de Chile. In 2011, as a member of the Escuela Carnavalera Chinchintirapie, a Chilean carnival group, she began to play the Chinchin. There she met the great chinchinero, Patricio “Pepa” Toledo Riquelme, who invited Olga to work with him and his family in the street. This is when Olga began her career in the trade of the chinchineros.
In 2013 she met Juan Lizana Quezada, barrel organ player and joined him to play at various events and parties. Juan taught Olga how to play as an accompanist instrument with the barrel organ. During this time, she met Fabrica de Melodías, a Chilean barrel organ studio, and travelled with them to the “Dreshorgell Fest Berlin '' in 2016.
Olga also developed another facet of this special instrument, an important part of Chilean culture and folklore, yet not a part of any genre in Chilean music. Starting in the carnival group, where the chinchin in a part of a brass band, Olga took part in several bands like the Ensamble Transatlántico de Folk Chileno (world music, from Valparaíso), Tricahue Percussion and Saxophone (a chamber ensemble, they travel together to Europe and Asia), DePerilla (Jazz huachaca and instrumental cueca), collaborate with the Banda Conmoción (brass band, music from the north of Chile), etc. In 2019 she joined “La Maestranza” theatre company (Concepción) and participated in the play, En la Espalda un Corazón.
In 2018 Olga began to work with the “OOñate” studio, a Chilean percussion band. They were developing innovative chinchin; a brand which Olga endorses. She has actively participated in the chilean, ETHNO camps, a world music camp.
During the 2020 lockdown, Olga kept producing. The Folk Ensemble awarded a grant to make the first tutorial-documentary about Chinchina. Olga was the scriptwriter and protagonist in the documentary. In addition she was part of the online version of the SIM Sao Paulo Show Case, and was the arranger for the chinchin segments of En la Espalda un Corazón, a film adapted from the play of the same name.