los llaneros
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"Fine, fine playing, and a stage presence that would fill a stadium."
. .- The Tico Times, Costa Rica's English-language newspaper

Recent Juried Showcase selections: WAA 2005, Folk Alliance 2006, PAE 2006, Arts Northwest 2006

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Los Llaneros (Los Yah-NEH-ros)

This South American ensemble specializes in the music of the Colombian/Venezuelan plains that surround the vast basin of the Orinoco River. The music of this geographically and culturally unique area evolved from the contact between nomadic Indians and Jesuit settlers five hundred years ago. Authentic “Llanero” music is rarely performed outside these savannas because of its difficult harp, cuatro, and percussion techniques, and hence it remains one of Latin America’s best kept secrets. Los Llaneros have won several awards at Latin American competitions, and René Devia, the ensemble’s harpist, is recognized as one of Colombia’s foremost specialists in Llanero music.

The Llanos (YAH-nos)

The Llanos is the savanna region which encompasses the vast watershed of the Orinoco River. It unites eastern Colombia with the central third of Venezuela. This expansive and beautiful land is characterized by ample, open grasslands, and slow-flowing rivers and creeks flanked by gallery forests. The human population density in the Llanos has always been low, primarily because of its poor soils.

The Precolumbian Indian tribes of the Llanos, which were descendants of Caribbean cultures, led a nomadic life and subsisted by hunting, gathering, and horticulture. Jesuit missionaries arrived in the Llanos beginning in the Sixteenth Century, followed by large-scale landowners and their cattle herds.

 

los llaneros
Since then, the life of the Llaneros has been closely tied to cattle ranching. Even today, cattle ranching is the predominant economic base of the Llanos, although farming and oil extraction have also become important in some areas. Over the centuries, Spanish influences were adapted and transformed, and from this process emerged a distinct Llanero culture with very similar characteristics on both sides of the border between Colombia and Venezuela. Music plays a central role in the daily lives of the Llanero cowboys, the "vaqueros," and the interesting cultural blending which has shaped the people of the Llanos, is reflected in every note and syncopation.
 

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Represented by Cadence Arts Network
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Phone (310) 838-0849  Fax (310) 838-1922