He wants to spend time with his eight children, thirty-four grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren.
Quipildor, who popularized the Misa Criolla globally across 90 countries since 1974, performs his farewell at Palacio Libertad with free admission and stellar guest performers. The musician cites family reasons for retirement, wanting to spend time with eight children, 34 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren after decades of international touring.
- Zamba Quipildor, 82, performs his farewell concert on December 14 at Palacio Libertad with free admission
- He has sung the Misa Criolla in 90 countries for 60 years, beginning in 1974 when Ariel Ramírez discovered him
- He has eight children, 34 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren
- The farewell concert features Chaqueño Palavecino, Jairo, Sandra Mihanovich, and the National Choir of Argentine Music
At 82, legendary Argentine folk musician Zamba Quipildor performs his final concert on December 14, featuring the Misa Criolla with prominent guest artists, concluding 60 years of cultural contribution.
Zamba Quipildor is eighty-two years old, and on Sunday, December 14th, he will sing the Misa Criolla one last time. The concert takes place at the Explanada del Palacio Libertad in Buenos Aires, beginning at seven in the evening, and admission is free. He will not be alone. Chaqueño Palavecino, Jairo, Sandra Mihanovich, Carlos Di Fulvio, Tomás Lipán, the Hermanas Vera, Adelina Villanueva, and the National Choir of Argentine Music will join him—a gathering of figures who have shaped the country's folk tradition across decades.
Quipildor's full name is Gregorio Nacianceno Quipildor, and he has spent sixty years making music. Fifty-five of those years were spent in Buenos Aires, but he began singing in Jujuy, Salta, and Tucumán, which brings the total to six decades. He describes this arc not as a career but as a cultural embrace, a path taken with genuine pleasure through music, landscape, and the textures of Argentine life. Now, at the end of that journey, he is stepping away from the stage. The reason is personal: he wants to spend time with his eight children, thirty-four grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren. After so many years of travel, of carrying the country's voice across the world, he is choosing family.
The Misa Criolla is the work that defined his life. In 1974, a large man appeared at the Festival de Cosquín where Quipildor was performing. It was Ariel Ramírez, the composer. Ramírez listened for two hours, then asked if Quipildor knew the Misa Criolla. Of course, Quipildor replied. Ramírez invited him to his home studio in the Belgrano neighborhood and taught him the piece at the piano. The Misa is written for two voices, but Quipildor gave it life alone. Their first concert together was in Sorrento, Italy. After that, they did not stop. For twenty-nine years, Quipildor traveled with Ramírez, carrying the work to ninety countries and the great lyric theaters of the world. Audiences came in such numbers that tickets sold out quickly. The piece became considered a classical work—complex in its choral arrangements, its piano, its percussion, its regional instruments like the charango, the siku, and the quena.
What moved Quipildor most was what the Misa Criolla represented. He felt, and still feels, that the world needs a humanistic encounter that transcends political and religious difference. The work speaks to different social classes, different political beliefs, different faiths. When he sang it abroad, he carried on his shoulders the Argentine people, their landscape, their customs. It was a form of representation that went beyond performance.
The farewell concert is, in Quipildor's words, a celebration with friends and colleagues—many of whom share a history with him. He and Chaqueño Palavecino both drove buses in their younger years; Palavecino worked for a company that ran routes to Buenos Aires, while Quipildor drove for Belén de Catamarca. They recognized themselves in each other and have been friends for years. Sandra Mihanovich he admires for how she sings, how she expresses herself, her total commitment. Jairo is a friend who has sung the Misa Criolla many times with Ramírez, and his voice still moves Quipildor deeply. Carlos Di Fulvio is a great guitarist from Córdoba whose music transmits something essential. Tomás Lipán is another longtime friend. The Hermanas Vera will sing with the National Choir. And Adelina Villanueva—he invited her because in 1970, they won together at the Cosquín Festival. There is nothing more beautiful, he said, than to say goodbye in this way.
On December 14th, the Misa Criolla will be sung again, this time as a farewell. The concert is free. The stage is set. What comes after, Quipildor will spend with his family, carrying with him six decades of music and the knowledge that he carried something larger than himself across the world.
Notable Quotes
One is completing 60 years of trajectory. It has been a pleasure to take this path of culture, music, and landscape. This is a cultural embrace.— Zamba Quipildor
I feel that the world really needs a humanistic encounter, beyond political and religious differences. The Misa Criolla brings together different social classes, political beliefs, and faiths.— Zamba Quipildor
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Quipildor choose to retire now, at eighty-two, rather than continue performing?
He says it's about family. After sixty years of traveling—twenty-nine of those years constantly on the road with Ariel Ramírez—he wants to be present for his eight children, thirty-four grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren. There's a point where the road stops calling louder than home.
The Misa Criolla has been his life's work. Does he feel he's leaving it unfinished?
No. He's sung it in ninety countries, in the world's great theaters. It's been considered a classical work. What he feels is that the piece has done what it was meant to do—create a space where people from different beliefs and politics can meet. That's complete.
Why does he emphasize that the Misa Criolla transcends political and religious lines?
Because he believes the world needs that kind of encounter. He's lived through decades of Argentine history—the festivals, the tours, the changes. The Misa Criolla was always the thing that brought people together, regardless of where they stood politically or what they believed. That's what made it matter.
The farewell concert includes people he's known for years—Chaqueño Palavecino, Jairo, others. Is this concert about nostalgia?
It's more than that. Yes, there's history—he and Palavecino both drove buses, they recognized something in each other. But this concert is a statement: these are the people who matter, the ones he's built something with. It's a way of saying that the work was never just his—it was always collective, always about community.
What does it mean that admission is free?
It means the Misa Criolla remains what it always was—not a commodity, but a cultural offering. He's not selling a farewell. He's giving it away.