At the age of 102, the master Juan Vicente Torrealba died
Recognized as one of the 100 most outstanding personalities of the 20th century, in 2014 he was awarded in the Latin Grammy Awards.
El Universal
52/2019 06:36 pm
At the age of 102, maestro Juan Vicente Torrealba died, leaving behind an important musical legacy that gave voice to our Llano, his family members reported on their Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Maestro Torrealba was the author of more than 300 compositions, among others "Concierto en la plana", "La filma Zaina", "Only with the stars", "Black-eyed girl", "Rosario", "Estero de Camaguán", "Sabaneando", "Sol llanero", recorded in more than 130 albums, which made it one of the most genuine and representative voices of the Venezuelan plain.
This earned him the award in 2014 at the Latin Grammy Awards at the Hollywood Theater of the Metro Goldwing Mayer Grand Hotel and Casino in Vegas, United States. Although he was born in Caracas, the singer and composer of llanera music was taken from a very young age by his parents, Santana Torrealba Silva and María Esperanza Pérez, to Camaguán, Guárico state, where he received the llanera influence, learning to play guitar, cuatro and harp.
His childhood and adolescence passed between Cazorla, Guayabal, San Fernando, Corozopando and Calabozo, where he attended joropo dances to admire singers and dancers with harp, cuatro and maracas explode in birds, yaguazos, passages, six, quirpas, zumba zumba, periqueras, gabanes, chipolas, carnivals, guacharacas, among other airs.
In 1947 he created the group "Los Torrealberos", together with his brother Arturo Torrealba and his son Santana Torrealba León, who with their music surprised in Creole atmosphere. This is the origin of the great poem "Concierto en la llanura", which later became a requirement in Mexico and Paraguay to obtain a degree in harp.
In 1949 he returned to Caracas where he achieved a reputation as a folk musician, which led him to embark on a concert tour through different stages of both America and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s.
At the beginning of 1973 he traveled to Germany and studied the principles of electronic music, which allow him to incorporate improvements in the sound of his harp and add the presence of keyboards to his group. That same year he signed a contract with a recognized record company, with which he recorded several LPs of Venezuelan traditional music and dance music from Colombia, Cuba and Mexico.
In 1985 he began his solo and concert stage, during which he made important musical presentations with symphonic and chamber orchestras.
TORREALBA, Juan Vicente (Juan Vicente Perez Torrealba)
Born: 2/20/1917, Caracas, Venezuela
Died: 5/2/2019, Caracas Venezuela
Juan Vicente Torrealba’s westerns – song writer:
La guardia del buitre – 1958
Los muertos no hablan – 1958
Alma llanera - 1965