Venezuela

In 1989, through a grant from Partners of the Americas, Dr. David Evans traveled to Venezuela, with the intent of not only recording a massive amount of local folk and popular styles to present to the public, but to also stress the importance of these musicians to their musical styles.  He was greatly assisted in this work by Salvador Toro Moya, former director of the Music section of the Venezuelan Ministry of Education. This would lead them to recording various artists and ensembles in five separate states of Venezuela over a four-week period.

These recordings primarily focus on the important tradition of stringed instruments in Venezuelan folk music, ranging from the four-string cuatro to the violin and arpa (harp), with several other variants of plucked and bowed strings in-between. An album was released (The Music of Venezuela), later also licensed to the Zu-Zazz label of Great Britain for CD release, and a further expedition was made by Dr. Evans to Falcón state in 1990 in the hopes of being able to follow with several other albums, each time focusing on various instrumental groups. 

In 1989 Evans and Toro Moya were able to record approximately 54 different musicians for a total of 180 pieces, with soloists and groups both performing, as well as a similar number in 1990. These groups run the gamut between folk, popular, and art music, as often the lines between these genres are not as clear in Venezuela as they are in other countries. Various people from multiple backgrounds often come together to perform these styles, and it is a testament to how universal these musical concepts are for the people of Venezuela.  It is hoped that further Venezuelan recordings can be released by High Water or its licensees in the future.