A joint musical project has been launched between the Centre for Hybrid Studies of Bridgetown and the Venezuelan drumming group “Herencia Patarrumba.”
The project consists of the teaching of Venezuelan drumming to the children and youth currently taking part in the Signal to Noise Communication Camp offered by the Centre for Hybrid Studies. The camp is being led by Dr Deryck Murray and Carmelia Alleyne, at the Old Spirit Bond building in Bridgetown.
The five-week course, taught by the renowned Venezuelan musician and leader of the Herencia Patarrumba group, Manuel Moreno, is offered online, and it covers particular aspects of Venezuelan drumming musical culture, particularly from the coastal regions of Aragua, Carabobo and La Guaira, in northern Venezuela.
This alliance is part of the efforts of the Venezuelan Embassy to Barbados, along with the Centre for Hybrid Studies and associated organizations.
Master Moreno said that this experience of distance learning begins in Barbados but aims to reach other Caribbean countries in a journey to our African roots.
“We want to continue to connect with other peoples, which is why we are opening the compass of organic, face-to-face training and direct contact with distance learning, while maintaining our essence, which aspires to feel and live the traditional Venezuelan drum and the Afro-contemporary one,” said Maestro Moreno.
The Herencia Group has generated a solid artistic, cultural and community experience through the past 21 years, which in turn has translated into the consolidation of what is known today as the Herencia School, a space for training, research and interpretation of the drum, based on an educational experience that aims at the development of capacities, skills and knowledge through the sensory and ancestral journey of Afro-Venezuelan and multipurpose percussion, under Moreno’s own methodology.
The Venezuelan Chargé d’affaires to Barbados, Mr Álvaro Sánchez Cordero, added that this wonderful project brings the people of Barbados and Venezuela closer together through culture and music; thus, reaffirming both countries’ African roots, heritage and history.
“Our goal is to replicate this initiative in other community centres and schools across Barbados,” concluded Sánchez Cordero. (PR)
