Catrin Finch and Cimarron return to Wales in February - March 2009, with an additional date in Dartington Hall, Devon. Virtuosity, tradition, vibrant rhythms and rippling melodies combine in this unique harp-based international music project.
This fabulous, exciting and high-profile harp-based international music project combines the awesome talent of Catrin Finch (Cymru/Wales), regarded as one of the world's leading harp players and classical crossover success, with Cimarron (colombia), a seven piece llanera group led by harpist and composer Carlos Rojas, and drawn from the metizo people that inhabit the savannahs of the great Orinoco river.
Cartin Finch and Cimarron first met each other in Caernarfon, Wales in November 2007. During an intense four days, they exchanged and developped tunes and songs from each other's native culture, each being led by the other's harp tradition. Traditional Colombian rhythms saw the injection of Catrin's stunning virtuosity, whilst traditional Welsh melodies became infused with a vibrant latin identity.
Later that month, Catrin and Cimarron went on to tour eight theatres and arts centres in Wales and the same result was repeated everywhere- sell-out audiences, standing ovations and an ecstatic response that enveloped both artists and audiences.
The show attracted a wide audience demographic and drew attenders from across a range of artforms. World music fans experienced one of the world' finest classical harp players playing live, wwhilst many classical music attenders experienced a new form of world music for the first time.
The Catrin Finch and Cimarron project is now available for performance booking in Wales from 27th february-15th March 2009, and in scotland, Ireland and England from 16th March-31st March 2009.
Born in Llanon, Ceredigion, Wales in 1980, Catrin Finch was immersed in music, and especially the harp, from a very early age. For her sixth birthday, she was given immediately. Her mentor until the age of 16 was the leading Welsh harpist and tutor Elinor Bennett. Showing prodigious skill in the instrument, Finch joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of 10, becoming the youngest of orchestra to play at a BBC Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
In 1996, Finch left for the Purcell School in London, and switched to the London Academy in 1998.
It was at the Academy that she got a call from Buckingham Palace, inviting her to fill a long-dormant position; that of Royal Harpist to HRH The Prince Of Wales. It had not been filled since a fellow Welshman held the post in 1871.
After seeing Finch play at his 50th birthday celebrations, Prince Charles had described her as " acredit to Wales". She had no hesitation in accepting the invitation to perform at both public and private events in Buckingham Palace, Windsor, Highgrove House and St James' palace
Los llanos Orientales are vast plains that stretch from Colombia into Venezuela. The mestizo people that inhabit these savannahs on the great Orinoco river are descendents of Spanish settlers, African slaves and Indigenous Indians.
This is cattle rearing country where life revolves around country ranches. Music accompanies the daily working tasks such as milking and cattle drives. Most striking is the festive dance music called joropo, a fiercely virtuoso display of rippling melodies played on harp, bandola and cuatro accompanied by bass and maracas.
This rapid and joyous music is sung with high pitched voices reminiscent of Andalusian gypsy roots.
Cimarron is the most accomplished llanera group in Colombia. A seven piece led by harpist and composer Carlos Rojas, they have been working for over twenty years and have perfomed in Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, Sweden, France, Italy, England and the USA. These musicians are immersed in the sounds of "los llanos"; they seek to explore and experiment with their rich heritage whilst retaining the essence of the tradition.
Carlos was amongst a group of Coluombian musicians who accompanied Gabriel Garcia Marquez to perform at his Nobel Prize giving ceremony in Sweden in 1982. Cimarron's Smithhsonian albulm Si Soy Llanero was nominated for a Grammy in 2005.
“Cimarrón - the absolute highlight at Womex in Sevilla and at the 2nd Dutch Flamenco Biennale! The revelation of the biennale was invoked from afar, from the Colombian savanna, by Cimarron, a company of extremely musical gauchos. Their - related to flamenco - musica llanera or joropo was conveyed amazingly by a gathering of funny stringed instruments: a very small guitar named the cuatro, the somewhat bigger bandola, an appearingly self-made harp and an electric standing bass. The six chords per second by cuatro player Pedro Libardo Rey Rojas were almost violent, and the sambaball technique by Jhon Freiman Onofre Cartagena has to be one of the best in the world. That this hypertechnical and contrapunctual turboflamencojazz could even be danceable was proved by a little Colombian guy with dynamite in his feet. Furiously he was stamping his feet, not with toe and heel, but flat-footedly on his flip-flops. Overwhelming”
Robert van Gijssel de Volkskrant 2008
Hey Catrin... and Cimarrón! Yo también la vi en Cartagena haha... y pues tengo un cd de uds. Cimarrón con Catrin... es increíble, no pierden la chispa llanera. How's everything Catrin?... did I ever say that I had an excelent time in Cartagena? My mom's never gonna forget Ma Vlast's "concert" haha before the "real" concert. I hope everything is ok with your daughter and your husband.... please say 'hi' to them haha. Ok... I have to go.. so, good bye!. JS
