Cheo Hurtado was born in Ciudad Bolívar, Bolívar state, Venezuela, the son of the guitarist and composer Ramón Hurtado. He was christened Asdrúbal, but the nickname "Cheo" took hold firmly since early childhood.
Several styles of the traditional music of Venezuela, such as salsa and merengue, are common to its Caribbean neighbors. Perhaps the most typical Venezuelan music is joropo, a rural form which originated in the llanos, or plains.
The joropo, better known as Música Llanera, is a musical style resembling the fandango, and an accompanying dance. It originated in the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela and it has African, European and Native South American influences. There are different joropo variants: tuyero, oriental, and llanero. It is a fundamental genre of Colombian and Venezuelan música criolla. It is also the most popular "folk rhythm": the well-known song "Alma Llanera" is a joropo, considered the unofficial national anthem of Venezuela.
Ciudad Bolívar, formerly known as Angostura and St. Thomas de Guyana, is the capital of Venezuela's southeastern Bolívar State. It lies at the spot where the Orinoco River narrows to about 1 mile (1.6 km) in width, is the site of the first bridge across the river, and is a major riverport for the eastern regions of Venezuela.
Cheo Feliciano was a Puerto Rican singer and composer of salsa and bolero music. Feliciano was the owner of a recording company called "Coche Records". He was the first tropical singer to perform at the "Amira de la Rosa Theater" in Barranquilla, Colombia, and in 1987 he played the role of Roberto Clemente's father in the musical Clemente.
The cultures of Venezuela are diverse and complex, influenced by the many different people who have made Venezuela their home. Venezuela has distinctive and original art, literature and music.
Simón Narciso Díaz Márquez, also known as tío Simón, was a Venezuelan singer, actor, TV host, comedian, and Grammy Award-winning composer of Venezuelan music. Some of his most popular songs include Caballo viejo, Tonada de luna llena and La vaca Mariposa.
Huáscar Barradas is a Venezuelan flautist and Professor of flute at the "Instituto Universitario de Estudios Musicales" in Caracas. As a flutist he has represented Venezuela at a range of international festivals and as both soloist and symphonic musician plays a wide range of music types. Barradas was the principal flute of Orquesta Filarmónica Nacional. As teacher previously has worked at the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and taught his course "The art of performing the flute" at different Conservatories in and out of Venezuela.
Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez is a Venezuelan conductor. He is currently the music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is scheduled to become the Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026.
Fredy Reyna was a Venezuelan musician, arranger and performer, regarded as one of the two masters of the Venezuelan cuatro, which he elevated to the level of a concert instrument, and one of his country's most important cultural figures in the 20th century.
José Cristóbal Hurtado de Mendoza y Montilla, commonly known as Cristóbal Mendoza, was a Venezuelan lawyer, politician, writer, and academic. Cristobal is best known for serving as the first official President of Venezuela from 1811 to 1812. After earning a master's degree in philosophy in Caracas and his doctor utriusque juris in the Dominican Republic, early in his professional career he served in various law firms in Trujillo, Mérida, and Caracas. He moved to Barinas in 1796 to practice law, and in 1807 was elected Mayor of Barinas. In 1810, Mendoza joined the insurgent movement started by wealthy Caracan citizens against the Spanish crown, and in 1811 was elected to represent the province of Barinas in the newly founded Constituent Congress of Venezuela. Days later he was appointed the first president of the First Republic of Venezuela, a role he shared as part of a triumvirate. Until his term ended in March 1812, Mendoza began the war for independence against the parts of Venezuela that still supported the Spanish monarchy, authored the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, and also took part in constructing the first Constitution of the Republic of Venezuela.
Pedro Eustache is a Venezuelan-born flutist, reed player, woodwind player, composer, instrument maker and collector.
The Ensamble Gurrufío is a quartet dedicated to the research, arrangement and reinterpretation of Venezuelan instrumental music. The group has won multiple awards both nationally in its native country of Venezuela and internationally.
Otmaro Ruiz is a Venezuelan pianist, keyboardist, composer, arranger and educator. Son of Óscar Ruiz Beluche and Omaira Prado Hurtado, both medical doctors. He has a sister named Orlena, also a musician and educator.
The Venezuelan festival known in Spanish as Calypso de El Callao is held every year in Bolívar state, during carnival celebrations. It is a fusion of Trinidad and Tobago calypso music, Caribbean traditions and Venezuelan folklore.
Hurtado is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
The cuatro of Venezuela has four single nylon strings, tuned (ad'f#'b). It is similar in shape and tuning to the ukulele, but their character and playing technique are vastly different. It is tuned in a similar fashion to the traditional D tuning of the ukulele, but the A and B are an octave lower. Consequently, the same fingering can be used to shape the chords, but it produces a different inversion of each chord. A cuatro player is called a cuatrista.
Cheo may refer to:
Giancarlo Castro D'Addona is a Venezuelan – Italian composer, conductor and trumpet player. Gold medal winner at the Global Music Awards in San Diego – California (US).
Federico Ruiz Hurtado is a Venezuelan composer, arranger, and arts administrator. He has composed in diverse genres including symphonic, chamber, and electroacoustic music.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
