Musical School: Estrellas de Birongo

Dear Donor,

The vibrant African musical heritage thriving in Birongo has been largely ignored by the nation's media and music industry, and remains under-recognized internationally. All that is now beginning to change, making this project more relevant as time goes by.

There are more different types of drums in Venezuela than there are in Cuba, and Birongo has a few unique and original sounds and rhythms.

One of the most popular is the quitiplás. Quitiplas is made from stocks of bamboo that are cut so that the part that is closed you hit on the ground, and the top part is open-aired. It takes three players, one person takes the two higher pitched, smaller ones, establishes a rhythm, and then the other two play along. And by putting your palm over the top of the open bamboo stamper, you can change the sound as well, and then you can improvise. That’s what is so unique about the quitiplás because you can transform the sound with your hand. It’s a great sound. Such a basic instrument really offers you quite a wide range of different notes or different sounds so that you not only get the rhythmic harmony from the rhythms combining in different ways, but you can also play around with a kind of tonal harmony, the way that the sounds can change as they go along.

With your help we are one step closer to completing the Birongo Musical School. Very soon we will resume the construction and we will need your help more than ever.

Thank you.