Hernán Gamboa
Encyclopedia
Anzoátegui
Anzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors. Its coast consists of a single beach approximately 100 km long...
, located in the eastern part of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, June 18, 1946. He is the son of Carmito Gamboa Almeida and Carmen Alexis Gamboa.
From a very early age, he was exposed to music through his father, who was an extraordinary musician and singer. His father taught him to play the cuatro
Cuatro (instrument)
The cuatro is any of several Latin American instruments of the guitar or lute family. The cuatro is smaller than a guitar. Cuatro means four in Spanish, although current instruments may have more than four strings....
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, as well as de the percussion instruments native to Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. Hernán also learned the concepts and techniques of his country's popular songs.
In this way Hernan Gamboa began absorbing his country's history, literature, culture, poetry, music and folklore. He has been influenced by great Venezuelan poets, such as Aquiles Nazoa
Aquiles Nazoa
Aquiles Nazoa was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, poet and humorist. His work expressed the values of popular Venezuelan culture.He worked in the newspaper El Universal as a packer, later becoming a proof-reader...
, Luis Beltran Prieto Figueroa
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa , was a Venezuelan politician. A founder of Democratic Action and Minister of Education in its first government , he was a leader of Democratic Action after the restoration of democracy in 1958...
, Efrain Subero, Alberto Arvelo Torrealba
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba , was a Venezuelan lawyer, educator and folklorical poet. Author of .Torrealba was born in Barinas. But in his youth, he moved to Caracas where he studied high school, and attended the Central University of Venezuela...
, Luis Pastrori, Maria Inmaculada Barrios, Raúl Umanés, Ernesto Luis Rodriguez, Manuel Graterol and was significantly impressed by an introduction, at age nine, to the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
Winner Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
in the City of Barinas
Barinas, Barinas
Barinas is a city in west central Venezuela. According to an estimate in 2009, its population is 251,535. It is the capital of the Barinas Municipality and the State of Barinas...
where the poet sowed him admiration.
At fifteen Hernán had created a technique of playing the Cuatro called "Rasgapunteo". This technique consists of a particular way to play the instrument through the melody, the harmony and the rhythm at the moment of performing a composition. This technique actually has numerous followers in Venezuela as well as other parts of the world. The most notable being is his brother Noel Gamboa and his godson, Cheo Hurtado, Hernan's son, Hernán José and Rodrigo are also following the family tradition in music, playing several instruments each.
Hernán grew up in many parts of Venezuela due to his father's work in the nation's oil companies. From an early age alongside his father, he shared his music with many known musicians such as Cosme Villarroel who played Cuatro, the violinists José Planchart, Manuel Siverio and Pepe Flores, the guitarist Alirio Diaz
Alirio Diaz
Alirio Díaz is a Venezuelan classical guitarist.The eighth of eleven children, Díaz was born in Caserio La Candelaria, a small village near Carora in western Venezuela. From childhood he showed a great interest in music. At age 16 he ran away from home to Carora, where he sought better schooling...
and Antonio Lauro
Antonio Lauro
Antonio Lauro was a Venezuelan musician, considered to be one of the foremost South American composers for the Guitar in the 20th century.- Biography :Antonio Lauro was born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela...
, José Enrique Sarabia
José Enrique Sarabia
José Enrique “Chelique” Sarabia, is a Venezuelan poet, musician, publicist, and television producer....
, the harpists Ignacio Figueredo
Ignacio Figueredo
Ignacio Ventura Figueredo , was a Venezuelan folk musician and harpist.-His early successes:At age 11 he made his first public presentations in San Juan de Payara...
and Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba Pérez in Caracas, Venezuela, is a Venezuelan harpist and composer of popular music.Although born on the outskirts of Caracas, the family moved while he was very young to a ranch in Camaguán, Guárico. The poverty of the family and the region were such that he worked as a...
, with the brothers Real and Beto Valderrama from Isla Margarita
Isla Margarita
Margarita Island is the largest island of the state of Nueva Esparta in Venezuela, situated in the Caribbean Sea, off the northeastern coast of the country. The state also contains two other smaller islands: Coche and Cubagua. The capital city of Nueva Esparta is La Asunción, located in a river...
, with Anselmo López and Juan Esteban García. He also sang, played and performed with popular singers of the countries such as Francisco Mata
Francisco Mata
Francisco Mata was a Venezuelan singer and composer.Born in Juan Griego, from a young age Mata learned to play the cuatro and the guitar. Along with his father, Alexander Marcano Gómez, he learned to sing a variety of Venezuelan eastern songs, and with his mother Rosa, understood the importance of...
, Perucho Aguirre, El Carrao de Palmarito, Ángel Custodio Loyola
Ángel Custodio Loyola
Ángel Custodio Loyola , was a Venezuelan singer and composer, better known for being pioneering at the diffusion of joropo and the popular music of the Venezuelan plains, also for being defender of the country’s folklore, and his work for the masification of Venezuelan music, popularizing and being...
, Benito Quirós, Luis Mariano Rivera
Luis Mariano Rivera
Luis Mariano Rivera was born on August 19, 1906, in the valley of Canchunchú, in the Sucre State of Venezuela. He was known not only as a singer, but also as a composer, poet and dramatist....
, Rafael Montaño, Chelias Villarroel, María Rodríguez, Mario Suárez
Mario Suárez (singer)
Mario Suárez is a Venezuelan folk singer.From very young, at the age of nine, was presented to Carlos Gardel by his father, who was his driver during his visit to Venezuela, this meeting influence Mario Suárez in what will be his career as singer.In 1936, Mario Suárez moved to Caracas, beginning...
, Enrique Ribas to name some.
In 1970 Hernán with Ivan and Cesar Perez Rossi and Mauricio Castro founded the Vocal Group Guayanesa Serenade (Serenata Guayanesa
Serenata Guayanesa
Serenata Guayanesa is a vocal and instrumental quartet that plays typical Venezuelan folk music. It is one of the two best known groups playing this music .-Origins of the group:...
) Hernán did the arrangements as well as playing first Cuatro and singing baritone. He remained with this very popular group for 15 years. During this time the group played all across Venezuela and other countries.
He also shared the stage with Venezuelan artists such as: Gualberto Ibarreto
Gualberto Ibarreto
Gualberto Ibarreto , is a folk singer who plays the mandolin, cuatro, and guitar.During his childhood, he taught himself how to play several instruments after observing popular musicians of the Venezuelan east. He later received some slight knowledge of academic music from Tobías Hernandez and Raul...
, Reynaldo Armas
Reynaldo Armas
Reynaldo Armas, born in Los Guatacaros, Santa María de Ipire, Guárico State, Venezuela, August 4, 1953, is a Venezuelan llanero singer and composer.-Early life and career:His parents were Nicasio Armas Figueroa and Modesta Enguaima Hernandez....
, Gustavo Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Salazar
Juan Carlos Salazar
Juan Carlos Salazar is a well known Venezuelan singer and cuatro player. Juan Carlos was born in Caripito, a small town in the State of Monagas. Born to a singer, guitarist and cuatro player and a composer, Juan Carlos learned how to play cuatro and guitar by ear.Juan Carlos Salazar actually began...
, Jesús Rafael Soto
Jesús Rafael Soto
Jesús Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan op and kinetic artist, a sculptor and a painter.He was born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. He began his artistic career as a boy painting cinema posters in his native city...
, Cecilia Todd
Cecilia Todd
Cecilia Todd is a singer and cuatro executant.From very young the love of music, initially fed by her family group, awakened in Cecilia...
, Lilia Vera, Morella Muñoz
Morella Muñoz
Morella Muñoz , was a celebrated Venezuelan mezzosoprano.- Early life and career :She received primary education at the Venezuela Ricardo Zuloaga Experimental school, and the San José de Tarbes school...
, Alí Primera, Soledad Bravo
Soledad Bravo
Soledad Bravo , is a Venezuelan singer.Born in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain her father was a Spanish republican, moving to Venezuela with his family when his daughter was still at an early age. At 24, Soledad began studying architecture and philosophy at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where she...
, the sisters Chacin, Cristobal Jiménez, Luis Mariano Rivera
Luis Mariano Rivera
Luis Mariano Rivera was born on August 19, 1906, in the valley of Canchunchú, in the Sucre State of Venezuela. He was known not only as a singer, but also as a composer, poet and dramatist....
, Rodrigo Riera
Rodrigo Riera
Rodrigo Riera , was a Venezuelan guitarist and composer. He wrote a vital and important body of works for the guitar, inspired by and dedicated to the rich music legacy of his region in the Lara state in Western Venezuela, displaying a loving nationalism that led him to be associated with the work...
, Cristobal Soto, Miguel Delgado Estévez, Anselmo López, Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba Pérez in Caracas, Venezuela, is a Venezuelan harpist and composer of popular music.Although born on the outskirts of Caracas, the family moved while he was very young to a ranch in Camaguán, Guárico. The poverty of the family and the region were such that he worked as a...
, Pedro Naranjo, Eudes Alvarez, Juan Esteban García, Antonio Naranjo, Frank Dipolo, Benjamín Brea
Benjamín Brea
Benjamin Brea is a Venezuelan woodwind player, music teacher and arranger, mostly associated with jazz, although he has a wide career involved with other genres....
.
Hernán Gamboa is the person who has introduced the Cuatro to the world, playing in more than 60 countries of America, Europe and Asia. He has given concerts in all of those countries, and appeared in numerous and important festivals, theaters and Universities. Through these he shares the stage with well-known artists such as: Joan Manuel Serrat, Mercedes Sosa, Facundo Cabral
Facundo Cabral
Facundo Cabral was an Argentine singer and songwriter.He was best known as the composer of "No soy de aquí ni soy de allá" , which he improvised during one of his concerts...
, Chick Corea, Susana Rinaldi, León Gieco, Ramón Navarro, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, Gerardo Núñez, Sebastian Tapajos, Jaime Torres, Mario Cases, Eduardo Falú, Atahualpa Yupanki, Nana Muscouri, Libertad Lamarque
Libertad Lamarque
Libertad Lamarque was an Argentine-Mexican actress and singer. Originally from Argentina, she reached fame throughout Latin America while living in Mexico and working in Mexican cinema.-Career:...
, to mention some of them.
Hernán has composed and arranged more than 200 works of music and has recorded more than forty CD's, both as soloist and accompanied.
In February, 2011, his oldest son, Rodrigo Gamboa, died of a sickness that he fought his whole life.
Hernán, his wife Maria and his son, Martin Gamboa currently reside in Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina