Ricardo Garcia-Curbelo plays a poem without words (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Ricardo Garcia-Curbelo plays a poem without words

12:08pm Thursday 19th November 2009

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Growing up “surrounded by harps”, with his brother the director of the Music Academy of Villavicencio in Columbia, it seems almost inevitable that Ricardo Garcia-Curbelo would become one of the most celebrated Latin American harpists in the world.

Now also an award-winning poet and composer, Ricardo will demonstrate his talent at Grove Hall in Wanstead next Saturday, with a “colourful musical journey through different Latin American countries” performed on the Modelo Corvado 42-string harp he carved with his own hands.

Speacialising in Joropo, a music that combines poetry with classical, flamenco and jazz, Ricardo, will also play the cuatro, maracas and sing.

Speaking about the harp he constructed, he says: “When I came to England and went to big concerts, I noticed the Latin American harp was a bit small and wasn’t reaching the big audiences, so I decided to construct my own instrument which keeps close to the traditional sound but draws on the larger celtic and classical harp.”

An innovative musician, known and loved for his passionate, gifted way of communicating with the public, the highlight of next week’s concert will be a performance of Ricardo’s dramatic and acclaimed composition The Homo Sapiens Dream. Describing the work as “a poem without words,” Ricardo tells me he picked the piece because it gives people “inspiration during a time when so many are struggling”.

Ricardo performs at Grove Hall, Nightingale Lane, Wanstead on Saturday, November 28, 7.30pm. Tickets: 020 8539 0246 or arpeggios@hotmail.co.uk (£10/£8 concs/£5 child)

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