William R. Cumpiano
Encyclopedia
Early years
Cumpiano was born into a middle class family in San Juan, Puerto RicoSan Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
). His father was native from the town of Rincon, Puerto Rico
Rincón, Puerto Rico
Rincón is a municipality of Puerto Rico founded in 1771 by Don Luis de Añasco . It is located in the Western Coastal Valley, west of Añasco and Aguada. Rincón is spread over 8 wards and Rincón Pueblo...
, and his mother from Boston, Massachusetts. He was raised in the capital of Puerto Rico where he received his primary and secondary education. On one occasion, Cumpiano wandered into an eatery next to his grade school which had a jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
. He listened to Odilio Gonzalez
Odilio González
Odilio González is a Puerto Rican singer.González was born in 1939 in the center of the island of Puerto Rico, in the small town of Lares. His charm, sweet voice and youthful good looks turned him into a popular child star after a series of early radio performances in the capital city of San...
sing a decima with a 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...
and a 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....
in the background. In Puerto Rico the type of music that Odilio Gonzalez sang is known as "Musica Jibara", which is Puerto Rico's culturally equivalent of what in the United States is called country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. This early experience would eventually grow into his passion for Puerto Rican traditional instruments and singing.
Cumpiano attended the University of Puerto Rico High School in Río Piedras from 1959 to 1961 and St. John's Preparatory School in Santurce
Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Santurce is a district of San Juan, Puerto Rico.-Summary:Santurce is one of the top ten most populated areas of the island holding Miramar, Loíza, Isla Grande, Barrio Obrero, and Condado as main cultural hot spots for art, music, cuisine, fashion, hotels, technology, multimedia, film, textile and...
from 1961 until his graduation in 1962.
He wanted to study engineering, and in 1962 he moved to Medford, Massachusetts
Medford, Massachusetts
Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...
. There he enrolled at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, where he discovered that he was more interested in studying art. In 1964, he moved to New York City and studied industrial design at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
. He earned his B.Ind.D. (Bachelor of Industrial Design) in 1968, and went to work as a professional furniture designer.
Master guitarmaker
Cumpiano met master guitarmaker Michael Gurian in 1969, and under Gurian's mentoring he began his training in the craft of guitarmaking. Cumpiano left his job and went to work in Gurian's guitarmaking shop in New HampshireNew Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. In Gurian's guitarmaking shop he met and befriended Gurian's shop foreman, Michael Millard. Eventually Cumpiano and Millard established a shop together named "Froggy Bottom Guitars", where Cumpiano completed his training in guitarmaking. In 1974 Cumpiano left to establish his first private guitarmaking studio in Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...
. During the next twenty-five years he would move his workshop to North Adams
North Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,708 as of the 2010 census, making it the least populous city in the state...
, Leeds
Leeds, Massachusetts
Leeds is a neighborhood in the western portion of the city of Northampton, Massachusetts, United States, bordering Williamsburg--along the Mill River—and Florence....
and then to Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
. In 1997 Cumpiano moved his studio to Easthampton Road in Northampton
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
where it currently resides.
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n traditions. In 1985, his interests turned to the stringed-instrument traditions of his native island of Puerto Rico and over the years, Cumpiano became an authority on the craft and traditions that surround the "national instrument" of Puerto Rico, the 10- stringed native "cuatro". He has built numerous cuatros for musicians in the United States and also has crafted cuatro variants of his own design: he developed a "seis", or six-course (12-string) cuatro that can be tuned in the same string intervals as a guitar. He also developed the "thinline" cuatro with a body depth of only two inches instead of the traditional three.
Among his customers are Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Michael Lorimer, John Abercrombie
John Abercrombie (guitarist)
John Abercrombie is an American jazz guitarist, whose work often explores jazz fusion and post bop. Abercrombie has played with Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker...
, Country Joe MacDonald, the Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
band, June Millington
June Millington
June Millington is a Philippine-American guitarist, who along with her sister bassist Jean Millington, drummer Alice de Buhr, and keyboardist Nickey Barclay founded Fanny, which was signed with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records in 1969 and released five albums by 1974, including Fanny, Charity...
, and Joel Zoss.
Cumpiano has taught his craft for over 20 years out of his studio, in schools, during workshops and lectures and through numerous publications. He has taught cuatromaking to young Puerto Rican artisans under grants originating from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
(NEA) through various regional arts organizations.
"The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project"
Cumpiano met Juan Sotomayor, a prize-winning photographer who worked on the New York Times staff. They discovered that there was no serious effort being expended at the University of Puerto Rico to study or research the origins and history, the corpus, of the jíbaro musical and musical-craft traditions. They decided to set out to discover the story of Puert Rico's traditional stringed instruments and later, the story of Puerto Rico's traditional music.In 1992, he co-founded "The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project" with Juan Sotomayor and Wilfredo Echevarria, an expert in media communications.
The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the traditions that surround the national instrument of Puerto Rico, by means of gathering, promoting and preserving its cultural memories of Puerto Rican musical traditions, folkloric stringed instruments and musicians. The Cuatro Project is also dedicated to the promoting and preserving the Puerto Rican décima
Decima
Decima can refer to:*Decima , a goddess in Roman mythology and one of the Parcae *Décima, a type of poetic form with roots in Spanish literature*Decima Research, a Canadian polling company*Decima gallery, a London-based arts organisation...
verse form and the traditional song as created by its greatest troubadours, living and past.
Cumpiano, who is also a founding board member and president of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA), has lectured about his skills at conventions of the Guild of American Luthiers (GAL). He has received the recognition of various institutes, among them the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
and the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. He is also the co-recipient of 1993 U.S. Patent for the compression-molded carbon-fibre composite guitar soundboard.
Written work and Documentaries
Cumpiano co-authored, with Jonathon Natelson the world's leading guitarmaking textbook, "GUITARMAKING: Tradition and Technology", a complete reference for the design and construction of the steel-string folk guitar and the classical guitar, which has been acclaimed as the principal textbook in his field and considered by many as the BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
of guitarmaking.
In 1998 Cumpiano and his colleagues wrote, directed and produced "Un Canto en Otra Montaña: Música Puertorriqueña en Hawaii" (A Song [Heard] in Another Mountain: Puerto Rican Music in Hawaii), a short-feature video documentary on the music and social history of the century-old Puerto Rican Diaspora in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
.
Cumpiano, together with Sotomayor and Echevarria, wrote, directed and produced twoDVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
documentaries for The Cuatro Project. They are:OUR CUATRO Vol.1, the first feature-length documentary about the cuatro and its music and OUR CUATRO Vol. 2: A Historic Concert. Cumpiano and cultural researcher David Morales produced another DVD documentary THE DÉCIMA BORINQUEÑA: An ancient poetic singing tradition, directed by Myriam Fuentes. The proceeds of these recordings were to be used for the research and documentation activities of the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project.
- "Nuestro Cuatro: Volumen 1", The Puerto Ricans and their stringed instruments. An unprecedented documentary that reveals the emotional story of the development and the history of the music and stringed instruments traditions of Puerto Rico.
- "Nuestro Cuatro: Volumen 2", Un Concierto Historico/ A Historical Concert. The conclusion of video documentary Nuestro Cuatro, a cultural and musical history of the Puerto Rican cuatro and Puerto Rico's stringed instruments.
- "La Décima Borinqueña/ The Décima Borinqueña" An Ancient Poetic Song Tradition. The tradition of the décima of the Puerto Rican jíbaros and its singing troubadours can be traced back to popular poetic forms of the Island's colonial past. In them, one can trace the medieval Spanish and Moorish roots of the trovador.
Cumpiano also co-produced and co-directed in 2001, the documentary "Construyendo Cuatros" (Making Cuatros), which comprises visits with two of Puerto Rico's most respected cuatro makers, showing them at work, the sequence of constructing a cuatro, and their impressions of their craft and the future prospects for the instrument.
Associations
Cumpiano has been a member of the following associations:- 1988–1996 - Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA) - Co-founder, board president, and board member of International trade association of East Coast luthiers.
- 1993–1998 - FibreAcoustics - Partner in start-up company to market new materials for the musical instrument industry.
- 1980–1994 - Rosewood Press - Partner, publisher of guitar-making textbook .
- 1990–1993 - Artists in Resonance - Co-founder of instrument-maker's collaborative consisting of three guitarmakers, one drum-maker and one harp-maker, in Hadley, MassachusettsHadley, MassachusettsHadley is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The population was 4,793 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around Hampshire Mall and Mountain Farms Mall along Route 9 is a major shopping destination for the surrounding...
. - 1995–1997 - Leeds Guitarmaker's School - Co-founder, instrument making school in Northampton, Massachusetts.
- 1992 to present - Puerto Rican Cuatro Project - Co-founder.
Awards and exhibits
Among Cumpiano's awards and exhibitions are the following:Awards:
- 1973 - "Honor Award of Merit for Excellence in Workmanship"- given by the American Institute of Architects, New Hampshire Chapter.
- 1997- "for his work in preserving the culture of Puerto Rico through the making of traditional string instruments and undertaking the task of teaching its art and origins to others."- plaque given at awards banquet of the University of MassachusettsUniversity of MassachusettsThis article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
at AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstThe University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
.
- 2000 – Received award and tribute for "Outstanding service to the Western Massachusetts Latino community" from the Latino Scholarship Association, Western Massachusetts region.
Exhibits:
- 1978 - Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Request for display of a Cumpiano 12-string guitar in national show, "The Harmonious Craft".
- 1998 - Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Display of instruments and research, along with student work, to curators of the National Museum of American HistoryNational Museum of American HistoryThe National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. Among the items on display are the original Star-Spangled Banner and Archie Bunker's...
.
- 2001 - American Crafts Museum, New York, New York
Display of instruments for major show, "Objects for Use: Handmade by Design".
Currently
Cumpiano has been married to Jeanette Rodriguez for the last 23 years and has a stepson. He continues to run his shop and is active with The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project. He currently shares his Northampton studio with a partner of many years, the master luthier Harry Becker, and they call their studio, "Becker and Cumpiano Stringed Instruments".He has been featured in many magazines and he has written articles which have been featured in the following publications: Journal of Guitar Acoustics, Frets magazine, Guitar Player Magazine, Fine Woodworking Magazine, Stringed Instrument Craftsman, Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Guitar (magazine)
Acoustic Guitar is a monthly magazine published in the United States since July/August 1990 by String Letter Publishing. The magazine offers information related to acoustic guitars for players of all levels from beginners to teachers. Each issue includes a half dozen or so songs with notation and...
, Guitarmaker, the journal of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA), American Luthierie, the journal of the Guild of American Luthiers (GAL) and is the author of "Manuel Velázquez, guitarrero" article in Houghton-Mifflin Spanish-language reader, "Portales" (published 1997). Cumpiano is writer/consultant for Question & Answer column for Acoustic Guitar.
Cumpiano is putting the finishing touches on the manuscript of "The Cuatro Project", which he and his comrades began 15 years ago, tracing the roots and evolution of Puerto Rican traditional stringed instruments. He has been active giving community instrument-making workshops in Chicago, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico.
Further reading
- 1987 – "Frets Visits William Cumpiano" 1987 feature magazine article in Frets Magazine.
- 2004 – "William Cumpiano" , 2004 feature article in the April issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
- 2005 – "Crafting Great Guitars", Woodworker's Journal # 122, April, 2005 magazine article feature describing William Cumpiano's career and work.
See also
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- Puerto Rican scientists and inventors