The road to success for Venezuelan harpist and cultural entrepreneur Ángel Tolosa

Thousands of Venezuelan artists have left the name of the South American nation high in recent years and today we will talk about one of the best harpists of his generation. It is great Angel Tolosa, with whom we had the joy of having a very pleasant exchange in which we touched on certain issues related to his fruitful musical career.   

Tolosa’s taste for Venezuelan popular and traditional music   

Something very important we have to mention about Angel is that he was born in the city of Caracas, Venezuela, so he managed to have a lot of contact with musical genres that were not only Venezuelan, but also from all over the world such as jazz, bossa nova, Cuban son and many others. This gave him a better understanding of music in general and a wider range of genres to choose from. 

There are many genres he likes, but without a doubt, Venezuelan music captivated him from the first time he heard it and, as he studied and analyzed it, he became much more aware of everything it had to offer at an artistic level. Ángel claims that ”no one can love what they don’t know”, so he has always been careful to learn as much as he could about Venezuelan music, so his is a knowledge-based love.   

Angel and the harp   

One advantage that Angel had is that he grew up in a profoundly musical environment, since music was always very important in his home. This led him to get started in folk singing when he was only four years old, which in turn, interested him in the piano and the Venezuelan cuatro. However, what definitely most caught his attention at so early an age until today was the harp, which according to Angel, was part of the life plan that God has for him.   

The musician even laughing says he believes that ”instruments are like their owners” since the harp interested him for being peculiar, versatile, elegant and demanding in terms of discipline to be played. These are characteristics that the artist perceives in himself when playing any piece, so he affirms that this is the instrument that most closely resembles his personality and style.   

Ensamble A Contratiempo   

When Ángel and his brother José Luis noticed the talent they both had for music and the fabulous combination of what they made in this field, they decided they had to create something together and took the risk of creating Ensamble A Contratiempo, with which they sought to establish a platform on which they could share their musical interests with total freedom and without any restrictions. Angel defines it in short as ”a band with a universal sound, but with well-defined Venezuelan roots”.   

Ensamble A Contratiempo’s specialty is the so-called Afro-Venezuelan jazz and blends genres such as jazz, universal music, electronic elements and Afro-Venezuelan roots, resulting in a fresh and original urban sound that leaves no one who might listen to it indifferent.    

Something that characterizes this group is that it uses conventional instruments to play in unconventional ways. Ensamble A Contratiempo usually plays the harp, the cuatro, the violin, the bass and Afro-Venezuelan percussion.   

Both Ángel and his brother José Luis have enormous prestige and are seen as two of the most prolific art entrepreneurs of their generation and pioneers in the genres in which they perform, so this musical initiative was very well received in all sectors in which it has been heard.    

Together, the Tolosa brothers have even been able to design an essential vocabulary for learning to play the Latin harp and even contributed to the redesign of the Venezuelan harp as it was known before them. 

Within their extensive discography, we can mention some important titles such as ”Venezuelan Sounds”, ”Katuketi” and ”Ancien Roots”.   

Teaching and Agrupación Oficial de Cultura de la Zona Educativa del Estado Táchira 

As if this were not enough, Angel has also worked as a teacher and an important member of the Agrupación Oficial de Cultura de la Zona Educativa del Estado Táchira. 

In this regard, Angel explained that he worked for the Venezuelan Education Ministry for more than four years, an experience that helped him to design the educational services he currently offers in his cultural company, which also creates projects for various cultural institutions, universities and art centers around the world.    

On the subject of music education, the artist also emphasized that ”this is essential for the cognitive development of each person, the benefits that music has on those who not only have contact with it, but also play it have been demonstrated. Music is so demanding that it drives to have a structured life ruled by profound ethical principles and spirituality”.   

Bachelor of arts and ethnomusicology 

Angel has said that his Bachelor of Arts has been extremely important for his career as a musician, since from his point of view, ”music is a profession in which all disciplines of the world converge”. Everything he learned during his degree has allowed him to build diverse musical and business concepts under a much more orderly system. This career has offered him the necessary structure for the projects he has started with music, which he appreciates.   

In addition to this, Angel has also studied ethnomusicology, which can be defined as an academic area that involves various approaches to the study of music, but with special emphasis on social, cultural, identity aspects and more of this kind. This way of studying and perceiving music combines details that come from folklore, psychology, cultural anthropology and musicology at their most conventional.    

On the above, the harpist pointed out that ”Venezuela has a very deep sense of identity” and that the identity of a country is like the face and fingerprint that allows us its distinguishing features and what makes its inhabitants part of a whole. Of course, the typical music of the place is an essential part of what we have said.   

Since Angel is a lover of everything about Venezuela, he takes as a starting point his own profession to understand his own country in a much broader and rational sense, which he thinks Venezuelan society should do as a whole. It is necessary to know the concept of nation and of what we are and I don’t see any other road but culture” said the artist on the subject.  

It is clear that for the entrepreneur, studying music and its genres from its purest roots is a way to pay homage to the culture which we come from, an example that we should all replicate, even those who are not dedicated to music. 

Read also: Founder of Yambu Productions and host of ”Alma Del Barrio” Guido Herrera-Yance