Venezuela Project: Traditional Harp Music, Sustainable Agriculture, and Environmental Education
by John Lozier, Executive Director, Harping for Harmony Foundation
Venezuela is where, in 1991, I discovered arpa llanera (harp of the plains), the heart of a very lively traditional music. We were a group of agricultural scientists, studying sustainable agriculture on farms and ranches in the vast Orinoco river plains. From a series of subsequent visits, and in collaboration Venezuelan musician and professor of agriculture Adolfo Cardozo, we are promoting traditional music, sustainable agriculture, and environmental education through collaborative tourism that we call ARPATUR.
Not long after my return to West Virginia, I started playing the harp. My efforts in the early years were
inspired also by Mexican and Paraguayan styles, by the world-class harping of Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, and by the example of my friend John Kovac. I started Harping for Harmony Foundation in 1995, to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music.
It was 2005 before I again visited Venezuela. By then, I had traveled with my harps to El Salvador, Russia, Haiti, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and Mexico. My Venezuelan host each year since 2005, and going forward, is Adolfo Cardozo. Adolfo has an outstanding career in agricultural science and environmental education, but he is more widely known and loved as a creative musician, singer and songwriter in the traditional folk style.
Adolfo and I want to share with others a unique travel opportunity, with features including traditional music, ecotourism, sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and cross-cultural friendship. Our ideal tour group would be 8 to 12 persons, a mix of ages, including traditional musicians, farmers, students, and educators.
In the nearby photo, a monument depicting a harp stands in the Plaza del Folklorista in Guanare. In front of the photo stand John Lozier, John Kovac, and Fernando Guerrero.