about this event
"Mesmerizing . . . left this listener breathless" - Glasgow Herald
Internationally acclaimed, Alfredo Rolando Ortiz is a renowned soloist of the "arpa paraguaya" (Paraguayan harp), composer, author and educator. He has recorded over 40 albums and is the winner of a Gold Record in South America. His compositions have been performed and recorded by pedal, lever and folk harpists around the world. Tonight’s concert will feature his own compositions as well as exuberant, traditional music from Latin America.
Born in Cuba, Alfredo emigrated to Venezuela at the age of eleven, and at fifteen began studying the Venezuelan folk harp and then the Paraguayan harp. After only two years as a harpist he started performing professionally, recorded his first album and began medical school in Medellín, Colombia. After moving to the USA he studied Music Therapy, and eventually, in order to have time for his growing family, dedicated his life only to them and to his first love, the harp.
His acclaimed 'South American Suite for Harp and Orchestra' premiered in 1996 and he has since performed it with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, also in Venezuela, Guatemala, Brazil, Turkey, New Zealand, Israel and with several orchestras in the USA, including with the Corona Symphony Orchestra, California in October 2024.
In 2008, during the Tenth World Harp Congress in Amsterdam, his composition ‘Cumbia Verde’, was premiered by 232 harpists, the largest harp ensemble to date.
The World Premiere of his composition, ‘Cuban dream after the storm’, for four pedal harps, was performed by the Chicago Harp Quartet at Carnegie Hall, New York in 2015. In 2017, the same quartet performed the World Premiere of his composition ‘Pensiamentos’ at the Teatro Nacional, Havana, Cuba.
visit: https://alfredoharp.com
Official YouTube Artist Channel, YouTube.com/AlfredoRolandoOrtiz.