| Fredy Reyna | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Born | April 3, 1917 Caracas, Venezuela |
| Died | March 26, 2001 (aged 83) Caracas, Venezuela |
| Genres | Venezuelan folk music |
| Occupations | musician, cuatro performer, composer, arranger |
| Instruments | cuatro |
Fredy Reyna (April 3, 1917 - March 26, 2001) was a Venezuelan musician, arranger and performer, regarded as the undisputed master of the Venezuelan cuatro, which he elevated to the level of a concert instrument, and one of his country's most important cultural figures in the 20th century.
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Fredy Reyna was born in Caracas, Venezuela, April 3, 1917. From a very young age he showed great curiosity and interest in art in all its manifestations. His father, Don Federico Reyna, cultivated several arts and was an amateur musician, photographer and painter. This influenced the young Fredy in his work and life.
Early in his life, he received the rudiments of music from his father at the piano. In 1933, he started private guitar lessons from Raul Borges. At the age of 18 Fredy Reyna enrolled in the Escuela de Musica y Declamación in Caracas (today called "Conservatorio José Ángel Lamas"), where he completed the first four (of six) years of classical guitar studies. His bright intelligence and his necessity to experiment with all the sounds he could muster, quickly branded him as a bad student for not being able to easily assimilate the rigorous musical study methods of that time.
In 1936, enrolled at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas, from where obtained a degree as Professor of Fine Arts in 1939.
In 1939, having graduated as a professor of Fine Arts and Drawing, he began teaching classes in the “Escuela Experimental Venezuela”.
In 1943 his first son is born, Federico Reyna, then in 1945 his first daughter is born, Tatiana Reyna, then in 1948, his second son is born, Maurice Reyna and in 1965 his second daughter was born, Anita Reyna.
Between 1947 and 1948, he travelled to Paris with his wife where he studied stagecraft in the Ecole d'Art Apliqueé a l'Industrie and a course in guignol with Gastón Baty, while she continued Ballet studies.
Back in Venezuela, in 1948, motivated by the theft of his prized classical guitar, he decided to switch to the cuatro, the Venezuelan national instrument. That same year, he "discovered" and recorded Ignacio Figueredo, a popular harpist whose career he helped launch. Around that time, he came up with the alternate tuning method that became one of his landmark developments and lifelong research topic.
In 1949, the teacher Fredy Reyna directed the Marionette School of the Ministry of Education and that same year he wrote his first cuatro method, published in 1957. It was dedicated to Raul Borges, his former teacher.
In 1958 Fredy Reyna traveled to Europe where he remained until 1966. In that long period he dedicated himself to research the music for lute and vihuela of the 16th century. He attended courses to systematize and to document his knowledge in diverse categories. Upon his return to Venezuela he made an extensive concert tour as a soloist throughout the country, dictated cuatro courses, and produced and recorded several albums together with artists like Alirio Diaz, Conny Méndez and Morella Muñoz. During the World Fair in Brussels, he played cuatro in the Venezuelan Pavilion. Whilst living in London, he gave evening classes in Latin American music...classes typified by his kindness and readiness to encourage. With his family, he gave a programme of Venezuelan music on the BBC Third Programme and the family also gave concerts in various halls.
His innate generosity, along with his vocation as an educator and his love of children took him to collect toys, puppets and marionettes for more than 50 years. he made exact replicas of a part of these toys so that the children could touch them and to see how they were made. he even taught toy factories how to construct them.
Fredy Reyna dedicated a part of his life to the manufacture of musical instruments in his workshop. There he spent long hours experimenting in his search for new sonorous applications for his cuatro.
In 1978, by initiative of his relatives and on the occasion of the artist's 60th birthday, the Foundation known as Fredy Reyna initiated its cultural work, with the goal to offer courses of artistic and integral initiation: Music, Plastic Arts and Theater. In 1990 he received the maximum recognition for a popular artist, the National Prize of Culture (Premio Nacional de Cultura) awarded by the CONAC. In 1993 he finished his new method for the cuatro, which he called ALFA BETA CUATRO, published in 1996.
In 1994 his health began to deteriorate, and he died in Caracas on March 26, 2001, leaving a great void in Venezuela's cultural endeavor.
1. As a Cuatro Soloist
2. As a publisher
3. As artistic director
4. As recording engineer/editor
5. As musical guest (solo cuatro)