On October 11th, 2009, Casa De Venezuela presented its signature program Venezuelan Expressions 2009 at the new Freedom Theater in Philadelphia. This year's theme was Venezuela’s Musical Influences: a journey through a diverse cultural experience covering the vast influence of indigenous, African, Caribbean, European and Middle Eastern cultures in Venezuela’s folklore and traditions.
The show was an amazing experience full of talented performers. The ensemble of Music and the Group of Traditional Dances of Casa de Venezuela presented pieces not only from the traditional Venezuela folklore such as Zaragoza, a traditional folk dance and music from the region of Sanare, State of Lara, but also more contemporary pieces such as De Repente (Suddenly) from composer Aldemaro Romero.
The Dali Quartet, one of the special guests for the evening, presented a piece named Adelaida from Venezuela Composer Efrain Amaya. They received standing ovation at the end of the 1st part of the show after their excellence performance of the famous tango La Cumparsita. This talented Latino String Quartet established in Philadelphia delighted kids and grownups with their amazing performance.
After the intermission, harpist Eduardo Betancourt made his appearance on stage. He featured some solo pieces like Quitapesares and a combination of pieces from celebrated composer, Latin Grammy winner Simon Diaz. Along with the ensemble of music and the group of dancer, Eduardo performed a very traditional Joropo, musical genres from the plains of Venezuela, entitled Pajarillo. Eduardo added his touch of urban influences in some of the pieces he performed
The hostess of the event Ms. Zenddy Caicedo-Tintle, news anchor from WFMZ Channel 69, took the audiences through this journey.
This event was possible thanks to this year’s amazing sponsors Pennsylvania Council of Arts, The United State Census 2010, State Farm, Health Partners, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Goya, ALPFA, MIC ; Hispanic Yellow Pages. All State insurance - Bruce Datil agency, Raices Culturales and also promoted by the media partners and supporters: Impacto Latin Newspapers, El Sol Newspaper, El Tiempo Hispano Newspaper, Univision 65, Telemundo, WFMZ-69. More than 50 volunteers from Casa de Venezuela worked in this event since Casa de Venezuela started planning it in April.
Casa de Venezuela would like to thank their members for the support of this program, as well as to all the people who has helped us along the way to make this year’s Venezuela Expressions a very successful event. We hope you can join us in Venezuelan Expressions 2010.
Here you can enjoy some of the pieces of the event:
