Search Results for: Venezuela

Berklee Online: The Best Option for Learning Music Online

According to many of the artists we have had the honor of interviewing in this section, one of the most important things to succeed in the world of music is education and academic preparation. Fortunately, the United States is full of academic institutions offering all kinds of degrees, courses and diplomas to contribute to knowledge base artists use for their work. One such institution is Berklee College of Music.

Berklee College of Music is one of the leading music institutes in the state of Massachusetts and offers all kinds of academic degrees related to this important branch of the arts on its campuses in Boston, New York and Valencia, Spain. Its biggest focus is developing the potential of its students in areas like music, dance and theater.

In this prestigious institution, students have the opportunity to experience every aspect of the music industry through an interdisciplinary curriculum. On its website, those interested can see everything that is offered such as undergraduate, graduate, summer programs and online courses.

In addition, Berklee has made available to its applicants the possibility of studying in an online mode through its Berklee Online initiative.

Berklee Online

Berklee Online is an initiative by Berklee College of Music created in 2002 with a view to allowing aspiring musicians and established artists to pursue economic and high-quality degrees and educational programs from anywhere in the world.

Berklee students will be able to develop and improve all of their artistic skills through online certificate programs, award-winning courses, and undergraduate programs.

An important thing to note is that online students will be able to learn from the same professors from the physical campus, so at no time will there be any decrease in the quality of teaching compared to face-to-face classes. We are talking about the best professionals in each of their areas who have taught classes to numerous artists and have been part of national and international award-winning projects. Likewise, many of the graduates of this institution have won Grammys and other awards of this kind.

According to figures handled by the college, Berklee Online has students from around 140 countries and very diverse academic and work backgrounds, but with the same desire to learn and absorb the best from their instructors.

Another benefit offered by Berklee is the assignment of an academic advisor to students in order to support them in achieving their goals and help them in everything they need to make their experience the best it can be.

And for those who are not particularly interested in enrolling in a paid course, they can also opt for free resources to complement the activities they are carrying out. Among these resources, we can mention free sample lessons, degree handbooks, online course catalogs, news and exclusive content.

Once on the page online.berklee.edu, whoever wishes to have access to all this material must sign up and create an account by typing the data required by the page in order to get access to the content.

Graduation from Berklee College of Music at the Hynes Convention Center

Berklee Graduate Artists

Berklee College of Music has been the home of many renowned artists who have been able to learn much of what they know today in its facilities.

In this same section, we have spoken with renowned musicians who attended this college, which has greatly contributed to the training that has allowed them to get to where they are today.

One of them is Venezuelan percussionist and musician Omar Ledezma Jr., who received a scholarship to study in this institution and, at that moment, he told us that he applied for the scholarship and managed to pass the audition required to enter the school. A month later, he was informed that he had been admitted to Berklee through a letter and, in his own words, it was one of the most important news in his life.

Today, Ledezma has an important participation in groups such as Pacific Mambo Orchestra with which he has played in major festivals such as Tempo Latino in several of its editions. He is also teaching at the SF Community Center where he shares his knowledge with other young people who want to follow the same path.

Another fitting case to mention is that of Puerto Rican arranger, composer and sound engineer Felix O. Rodriguez, who studied production, mixing and remastering at Berklee College of Music to prepare his return to the stage since leaving the music for an extended period of time. After that, he started his solo career with all the irons and released his first studio album. Having developed in the aforementioned areas, he has much more control over his work and has no need to hire as many people to record his music.

While it is true that these artists attended face-to-face classes, their professors and content were the same for online classes, so students enrolled in the online mode can enjoy the same benefits and the same learning without any problem.

Omar Ledezma, a graduate from Berklee — Venezuelan percussionist and musician Omar Ledezma Jr., a graduate from Berklee College of Music

Latin America / February 2024

DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS
ARGENTINA	ARUBA	BELIZE
BOLIVIA	BRAZIL	CHILE
COLOMBIA	COSTA RICA	CUBA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	ECUADOR	GUATEMALA
MEXICO	PANAMA	PERU
PUERTO RICO	VENEZUELA
	FEBRUARY 2024 FESTIVALS
CHILE		Viña 24 Feb 25 / Mar, 2024 Quinta Vergara C. Quinta Vergara 563, 2580085 Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile
CUBA		AloCubano Cuba Salsa Tour Dance Vacation Feb 14 / 25, 2024 Hotel Saint John’s Calle O e/ 23 y 25 Vedado Havana 10400 Cuba

Yilian Cañizares, an excellent Cuban musician, studied in her hometown in the strictest tradition of the Russian school of violin

Yilian Cañizares is a Cuban and Swiss musician. She has lived in Switzerland since 2000.

Born in Havana, Yilian Cañizares began studying violin in her hometown, in the strictest tradition of the Russian violin school.

At the age of 14 she obtained a scholarship in Caracas and in 2000 she moved to Switzerland to complete her studies at the Freiburg Conservatory.

Soon after, the main orchestras in the area began to contact her and once settled in Lausanne, she collaborated for six years with different ensembles.

Yilian Cañizares excellent Cuban musician

In Switzerland, she opened up to jazz and decided to embark on a new musical path, including singing in her career as a professional artist.

It was during this period that the artist decided to form a quartet with musicians from Germany, Venezuela and Switzerland (and later Cuba), and the group “Ochumare” was born, with which, just six months after its creation, in 2008, she won the prize of the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition.

From that moment on, his career has been growing steadily. In recent years, she has shared the stage with Ibrahim Maalouf, Omar Sosa, Youn Sun Nah, Richard Bona, Chucho Valdés, Roberto Fonseca, Dhafer Youssef, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and El Comité.

She also teaches violin at the Ecole de jazz et de musique actuelle de Lausanne (EJMA).

The success of her albums “Ochumare”, an independent production released in 2013, followed by “Invocación”, under the direction of Alê Siqueira (who has collaborated with Roberto Fonseca, Omara Portuondo), has consolidated her notoriety as an innovative artist, capable of venturing and transcending musical boundaries.

Yilian Cañizares, an excellent Cuban musician, studied in her hometown in the strictest tradition of the Russian school of violin.

She was listed by the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur as “revelation artist of the year” for her great virtuosity and charisma with which she is able to sing and play the violin.

“My sound reflects the richness and mix of cultures that I carry with me to this day and represents who I am: woman, Cuban, musician and citizen of the world”, said the artist.

Her second album “Invocación” reached the top of the Qobuz – World Music chart and was re-released in a Deluxe edition.

“Aguas”, the album produced in collaboration with Omar Sosa, saw the light of day in October 2018.

Accompanied by another compatriot, Inor Sotolongo on percussion, the duo created an intimate and personal album that reflects the views of two generations of Cuban artists living far from their homeland.

This album is a mix of energetic rhythms and emotional ballads that clearly reflect the unparalleled musical chemistry that exists between the two artists.

It constitutes a powerful and unique fusion of Afro-Cuban roots, classical music and jazz.

On November 15, 2019 was released the new album “Erzulie”, with its new formation Yilian Cañizares & The Maroons and dedicated to the Haitian deity of love and freedom.

This album was recorded in New Orleans and features the participation of numerous guests such as Christian Scott (trumpet), Michael League (double bass), Bill Laurance (piano), Bobby Sparks (organ) and Justin Stanton (keyboards).

Yilian Cañizares es una música cubana y suiza. Vive en Suiza desde 2000.

His style reflects the variety of his influences, with touches of jazz, classical music, Cuban music, with a large space left to improvisation.

The French magazine Les Inrockuptibles speaks of a jazz orchestration mixed with Yoruba ritual percussions.

She sings in Spanish, Yoruba and French and one of her distinctive features is that she sings and plays the violin at the same time.

There are so many influences on this album; Cuban, jazz, Venezuelan, Swiss, that it is difficult to pinpoint in each song which track falls into which category. In fact, they don’t.

Today it is too easy to want to pigeonhole music into one category: this is jazz; this is soul; this is funk. Yilian Canizares, in this wonderful album, breaks the stereotypes and that is why it is a pleasure to listen to it.

Sweet musical outbursts, explosions of improvisation that jump all over the place. He even finds a place to rap on “Iya Mi” and, obviously, it’s brilliant!

If we had to put a label on it, which I’m not thrilled about, I’d say this is a warm jazz album with Latin infused touches and tricks.

The meandering melody of “Beroni Abebe Osun”, the first track on the album, is a good indicator of this.

The throbbing bass, the heartbeat of the track, with its plucked violin, the blood pumping through his veins.

Cañizares is also a linguist, in case that wasn’t enough for us all to admire her.

The way he transitions from Spanish to perfect syllable-perfect French in his version of Edith Piaf’s “Je Ne Regrette Rien” (a beautiful version, by the way) is seamless and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s his first language.

It’s not easy to cover songs as big as Piaf’s classic, but Cañizares does it with style, class and, most importantly, grace.

Anything less than grace in a song like this makes it a bad version. It could be its own track, the strings perfectly light to complement the calmness of the voice and the ease with which Piaf’s lyrics take the weight of the world off our shoulders. I don’t regret a thing.” So simple. Yilian Canizares, we salute you.

And we’ll be on the lookout for the next album.

(kreolmagazine)

Yilian Cañizares – Invocación (2015).

Musicians:

Yilian Cañizares (Violin and vocals).

Daniel Stawinski (Piano)

David Brito (Double bass and electric bass)

Cyril Regamey (Drums and percussion).

Guests:

Akua Naru on Iya Mi

Gabi Guedes Gã & atabaques Rum, Pi, lé

Blaise Lambelet English horn on Laïla

Caxeiras do Divino da Família Menezes, Graça Re Reis & Bartira Menezes Caxeiras & Bartira Menezes &

Brazilian choir in Beroni

Julia Stuller, Gàbor Barta, Ivan Zerpa strings in Non je ne regrette rien

Luis Carbonell Voice in Canciòn de cuna para dormir a un negrito (Lullaby to put a little black boy to sleep)

Juan Carlos Toca Voice in Mapucha

All the songs by Yilian Cañizares except Beroni Abebe Osun (traditional/ Y. Cañizares) and

Non je ne regrette rien (Vaucaire/Dumont)

String arrangement (Non je ne regrette rien ) by André Mehmari

Cyril Regamey uses exclusively Istambul cymbals, Vater drumsticks and Aquarian drumheads.

Information provided (December 30, 2023)

Yilian Cañizares

Also Read: José Alberto “El Canario” and his orchestra enjoy a great international reputation in the Latin music scene.

Omar Negron and his song “Pruebame”

North America / USA/ Florida / Tampa

Omar Negron released his most recent Salsa single “Pruebame”

Enjoy the new hit of this Salsa Fina solist

Omar Negron, Salsa Romántica’s exponent, former singer of El Conjunto del Amor, Chaney and Willie Rosario and his Orchestra, launched their new tune “Pruébame” on March 5^th, 2019. This emblematic song by internationally renowned singer José José with arrangements by Victor Gamez was recorded between Venezuela and Paris Studios in Tampa, FL.

Omar Negron - Pruebame — Omar Negron – Pruebame

Genre: Salsa

Lyric by Rafael Pérez Botija

Arrangements by Victor Gamez

Release: 2019

Available:

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/omarnegron6

Felipe Pirela | The Bolero of America

North America / USA / New York

Felipe Pirela:

En mi barrio el empedrao
Parroquia Santa Lucia
Había una barbería
Que era muy populachera
Te lavaban en ponchera
La silla se reclinaba
Y Luis el perro pelaba
Al son de una periquera

This is the sound of the tasty gaita performed by the group Sabor Gaitero and Los Gaiteros de Pillopo. It refers to a barbershop in a picturesque neighbourhood of Maracaibo in the Venezuelan state of Zulia. It was in this popular neighbourhood of Maracaibo, El Empedrao, that Felipe Antonio Pirela Morón was born in 1941. It was probably in this popular barbershop that he got his first haircut, and it was certainly in some corner of the neighbourhood that he took his first steps as a singer, perhaps interpreting gaitas or some other popular genre. The young Felipe was far from imagining that he would become “El Bolerista de América” (The Bolero of America).

The son of a bricklayer, Felipe Pirela Monsalve, and a housewife – an artist at heart – Lucia Morón de Pirela, the boy began his musical career as a child, supported by his mother, in small radio singing competitions. Incredibly, at the age of 13, together with some boys from the neighbourhood and his two brothers, he founded the group Los Happy Boys, which performed in various venues in Maracaibo, without even imagining that he would later become the main star of Billo’s Caracas Boys, a group that, upon arriving in Venezuela, debuted under the same name, Billo’s Happy Boys, directed by the Dominican maestro Billo Frometa.

At the beginning of his singing career, Felipe specialized as a bolerista, performing songs by prominent singers such as the Chilean Lucho Gatica, the Cuban bolerista Olga Gillot and Venezuela’s favorite tenor Alfredo Sadel.

Radio Caracas Television had the honor of making Felipe’s image public for the first time in 1957, through an amateur program in which Felipe placed third. Unfortunately, there were no video recording systems in those days, so there is no record of this historic achievement. Later, the now defunct and legendary Venezuelan regional television station from Maracaibo, Ondas del Lago, served as a springboard for Felipe, who was one of its founding artists.

These performances allowed him to sign a contract with the station in 1958, after which he moved to Caracas, where he performed on Radio Caracas and in various nightclubs.

Shortly thereafter, he returned to Maracaibo to join the orchestra Los Peniques, with whom he recorded his first album in 1960 and began his professional career.

Like most of the artists, baseball players and boxers from Maracaibo, Felipe was a man of humble origins, pobre del pobre, with limited economic resources, who for a time missed opportunities to be noticed despite his immense talent.

Fortune smiled on him when Maestro Billo Frometa heard him sing, at a time when the arranger, director and musician from Quisqueyano was preparing to restructure his band, Billo’s Caracas Boys, and at the same time hired another singer from Maracaibo, the remarkable José “Cheo” García. This hiring gave an enormous boost to the already famous Billo’s Caracas Boys; the band acquired great international prestige, performing throughout America and Europe, popularizing the immortal mosaics that for many years enlivened the parties and were the favorites of the Venezuelan public.

Not for nothing, Billo’s Caracas Boys Orchestra has been called the most popular in Venezuela, the Caracas and Venezuelan clubs, Latin American countries and even the European continent (Tenerife, Spain) showed full houses during the band’s performances. In these performances, the acclaim for Felipe Pirela was total. Huge demonstrations of support, full houses and legions of fans followed the “crooner” on his tours.

When Venezuela’s favorite tenor, Alfredo Sadel, left the popular genre and his country to devote himself to opera, Pirela almost immediately replaced him in the favorite place of Venezuelans.

In 1961, “El Bolerista de América” recorded with a string orchestra conducted by Billo, the long playing Canciones de Ayer, including old songs and songs of that time, a recording that marked his resignation and departure to Mexico, where he also had memorable successes.

In 1964 he married Mariela Montiel, a marriage that resulted in the birth of a daughter, Lennys, and in which La Retirada was quickly marked by the fact that Amor se Escribe con Llanto (Love is Written with Crying) and that it probably does not last a lifetime.

Canada and Mexico witnessed his successes in ’67 and his return to Venezuela. Successful performances in Miami that same year motivated him to reside in the United States, where he tried to structure his own record company, a project that came to nothing and he was deeply disillusioned and returned to Venezuela, later residing in Puerto Rico, where he was taking La Última Copa when he was tragically assassinated in 1972.

For some, his career was marked by Sombras Nada Más, but for the vast majority, “El Bolerista de America” remains in the memory as one of the most unique stars of Latin American music of all time.

For Mario Cabrera Bello