Juan Vicente Torrealba Pérez (born February 20, 1917) in Caracas, Venezuela, is a Venezuelan harpist and composer of popular music.
Although born on the outskirts of Caracas, the family moved while he was very young to a ranch in Camaguán, Guárico. The poverty of the family and the region were such that he worked as a sharecropper, and did not complete his primary education. Restless, he took up the guitar, and by the age of 18 was giving public ...
More
Juan Vicente Torrealba Pérez (born February 20, 1917) in Caracas, Venezuela, is a Venezuelan harpist and composer of popular music.
Although born on the outskirts of Caracas, the family moved while he was very young to a ranch in Camaguán, Guárico. The poverty of the family and the region were such that he worked as a sharecropper, and did not complete his primary education. Restless, he took up the guitar, and by the age of 18 was giving public recitals, his style showing a strong Cuban influence. Feeling that he would never reach the standard to which he aspired, particularly after hearing Rodrigo Riera, he moved to Caracas and took employment as a bookkeeper in a newspaper.
It was in Caracas that he took up the arpa llanera, (i.e. the plains, or Venezuelan, harp), under the tutelage of Ignacio Figueredo. In 1947 he formed his own group, The Torrealberos, along with his brother Arturo, his nephew Santana Torrealba Leon, and vocalist Ángel Custodio Loyola. With this band, he was able...
Less
