harpcolumn

Q and A with Leonard Jacome

October 19, 2014
Leonard Jacome plays the electric Venezuelan Llanara style harp.

Leonard Jacome plays the electric Venezuelan Llanara style harp.

Many thanks to Leonard Jacome for sharing his latest video with us on Facebook! We wanted to find out more about his fascinating style of playing. Read on…

Q: How would you describe your style of playing?

I am very free in my performances. The music is free; it’s only love, feeling, and passion. All of my passions are dictated by my heart, and my hands translate this feeling in music, with the strings of my harp. I play with my heart.

Q: Where did you learn to play?

In my little hometown, at the Venezuelan Andes mountains. Rubio, Táchira state. I began with the Venezuelan Cuatro, after Guitar. Then I was bass player, therefore I knew and had some musical references, and from twelve years old I started with the Venezuelan harp, with the help of Williams Acevedo, my first harp teacher. All this in empirical way.

Q: Did you take traditional lessons?

Yes, totally. I come from Venezuelan traditional harp. All my first lessons were totally pure Venezuelan traditional harp. I played, I play, and I will play Venezuelan harp, and my New Venezuelan electric harp as well.

Q: You’re a harpist, but also a composer. Do you think that influences your creativity with discovering new techniques?

Yes, of course. Because I think is very important to give horizon and light to your imagination, without walls or barriers and from there discover all the possibilities to create new ways to play and interpret your instrument and manage your own language.

Q: Where can harpists hear you play, and what projects do you have coming up?

I invite to visit my web site www.leonardjacome.com in “concert section”, and there you can find all the information about concerts, tours and performances.

I am finishing my new Album+DVD with my trio: Strings under Pressure. This project was recorded and filmed live at studio. In this album I played the very first Venezuelan electric harp, made under my request by Camac-Harps of France.

Q: Anything else you want to tell Harp Column readers? Thanks to “Harp Column team” for this marvelous opportunity. Please follow me: @LeonardJacome [and] visit my website.

about the author

more like this

Kimberly Rowe is co-founder of Harp Column and served as Editor of the print edition from 1993–2013. She now serves as Web Editor. Kimberly performs and teaches in the mid-Atlantic region of the US. She is co-founder of the Young Artist's Harp Seminar, and on the faculty at Temple University, in Philadelphia.