Harp Concert with Venezuelan Harpist Angel Tolosa

Angel Tolosa, concert artist and composer on the harp, will perform at 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 22, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon. Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public. There is no registration.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Tolosa says he was drawn to popular and traditional Venezuelan music from an early age. Although he began playing the ‘cuatro’ (a smaller South American version of the guitar), he switched to the harp at age 14.

Considered one of the best harpists of his generation, he is accomplished in bossa nova, jazz, bluegrass and World music among others. At 18, with his brother José Luis Tolosa, he founded the A Contratiempo Ensemble, which provided a framework in which the musicians explore and fuse differing Venezuelan musical genres exclusively for the harp. As a result, the group has been invited to participate in numerous symposiums in Venezuela and internationally. 

Tolosa is currently a professor and member of the Official Association of Culture of the Táchira State Educational Zone; a Venezuelan representative in the First Mexican Folkloric Harp School in Durango, Mexico; as well as a teacher at various institutions.