Marta Topferova

Marta Topferova may have been born in the Czech Republic, but she must have spent a past life in South America. How else to explain a girlish fascination with the continent that first appeared when she heard the Andean group Inti-Illimani and blossomed over the years as she immersed herself in music by Mercedes Sosa and Atahualpa Yupanqui. After moving to Seattle with her parents as a teenager, Topferova taught herself Spanish, graduated from high school and spent the next decade learning everything she could about folkloric music from locales as disparate as Venezuela and Argentina. She also moved to New York City, where she was able to collaborate with groups and further her education. Though she mainly records in Spanish, Topferova has recorded and released a self-produced album, Homage To Homeland, which pays tribute to Czech and Slovakian folk songs. Topferova accompanies herself on the cuatro, and writes all her own lyrics, drawing inspiration from Spanish-language poets including Garcia Lorca.