If you want to have some fun, go watch a video of Leonard Jacome (pronounced zha-co-MAY). The charismatic and jovial multi-instrumentalist from a little town high in the Andes Mountains quickly makes it apparent that there are no limits for the Venezuelan llanera harp when he is behind the instrument. You may even have an opportunity to hear Jacome in person soon—he recently relocated to the United States in an effort to share his unique style of harp playing with a larger audience. We caught up with Jacome over Zoom from his new home studio in Miami, Florida.

Harp Column: Welcome to the United States. You recently relocated to Miami. How did your decision to move to the United States happen?

Leonard Jacome: Yes, I’ve been living in Miami for seven months now. There were different reasons for moving here. I had lived in London, Paris, Cancún, and Bogotá. I had visited the United States several times before for concerts, and I thought about moving here because I think that in this country I can promote the Venezuelan harp and Venezuelan music. For me, this is the most important country in the world with wonderful opportunities to build my artistic career and share my Venezuelan harp.

HC: For those who are not familiar with the Venezuelan harp, can you explain the instrument and how it compares to the Celtic harp or the pedal harp?

“The music of my country and my people and all of these other styles from the world are in my heart, and I bring that passion to the harp.”

LJ: The harp arrived in Venezuela with Spanish colonists. We share this harp with Colombia and adapted this instrument to our culture. The harp in Venezuela is made of cedar wood with 32 strings. This harp is special because it’s used to accompany songs and dancers and singers and play joropo music—traditional Venezuelan or llanera music. We have three kinds of harps: the llanera harp with nylon strings, the central harp with metal strings, and the Venezuelan electric harp. The first harpist in Venezuela was Ignacio “Indio” Figueredo—he is the father of the Venezuelan harp. In about 1940 he traveled to Caracas to document the traditional Venezuelan nylon string harp. After that came Juan Vicente Torrealba—a very popular composer and harpist, then Hugo Blanco, then Henry Rubio, Joseito Romero, Eudes Álvarez, Omar Moreno,  Gustavo Sanchez, Antonio Ostos (among others). Joropo music is played with harp, cuatro (a little guitar with four strings), maracas, and in the 1950s, Juan Vicente Torrealba brought double bass in with the harp to play joropo music. They created a dancing, rhythmic style of joropo music. Then in the 1980s and ’90s,  Carlos Orozco and Alexis Ojeda with a virtuosic style and Carlos Tapia, José Archila, and Chente Bonilla with a very soft and romantic style became very popular. I started to play the harp in 1994. I started on the Venezuelan harp that does not have pedals or levers—I didn’t even know about levers. I was born in a little town, Rubio-Táchira, in the Andes Mountains, and I had never seen anything else. But I always wondered how we could play more styles of music. In 2007, I was invited to the International Harp Festival in Paraguay. There I saw the Celtic harp with levers, and I thought, “This is the solution for the llanera harp, because the llanera harp accompanies many singers in different keys.”

HC: So on the traditional llanera harp, you need to retune the harp every time you accompany someone in a different key.

LJ: Yes, so I was thinking, wow, these levers could be the solution for llanera harpists. I took notes, and afterwards, my friend Carmelo Medina, who is a guitar player, showed me his new carbon fiber guitar. So I thought, if a carbon fiber guitar exists, then maybe a carbon fiber harp is possible. In 2008, I was invited to Argentina. There I saw a carbon fiber Celtic harp. Fantastic! So if a carbon fiber Celtic harp exists, then I can make an electric carbon fiber llanera harp with levers, and it will be a solution for the new generation of harpists in my country and the evolution of the llanera harp. I contacted Camac Harps in France, and I explained this project that I wanted to do. I emailed with Jakez François [the president of Camac Harps], and he was interested in this project. We met in London and Caracas to plan the project. So that is the history of the instrument to date.  

“I started on the Venezuelan harp that does not have pedals or levers—I didn’t even know about levers…But I always wondered how we could play more styles of music.”

The harp in Venezuela is in the middle of its evolution. There are many fantastic harpists in Venezuela and Colombia with different techniques, but it’s still a very young instrument. 

HC: You really brought the instrument into the 21st century and broadened its musical potential by pushing to add levers, carbon fiber, and electrifying it. You’ve even brought the updated instrument to the symphony orchestra and big jazz band. Was that something that you intended to do? Or did it just feel natural to place the harp in different ensemble styles?

LJ: Well, for instance, the piece I composed and played with orchestra in Malaysia in 2018, that music was in my head for a long time. I started my musical life at 6 years old with the piano. After that, it was the clarinet, guitar, mandolin, and electric bass. After that I started the harp. Now, the Venezuelan harp in joropo music is very strong. Think cowboys. It’s normally played in the Venezuelan plains. But I’m from the Andes Mountains. It’s a different culture with a different style of music—it’s more soft. I would compare the difference in music of the plains and mountains to maybe country music and jazz music. So long before the creation of the electric Venezuelan harp, I thought, “what would this instrument sound like with a classical orchestra or in jazz?” Maybe this fusion would be nice. 

In 2005, I saw a documentary called Calle 54 with Michel Camilo, Paquito D’Rivera, Bebo Valdés, Chucho Váldes (among others). This documentary changed my life. I thought, wow, if they play Latin jazz in this way, I want to do it on the harp. But how can I play jazz on a harp that can’t play chromatic music? So right then, I knew I needed to change the Venezuelan harp. It was after that experience that I went to Paraguay and saw the Celtic harp and wrote to Camac about my idea. But it was in that moment, hearing Latin jazz in Calle 54, that I knew we had to change the Venezuelan harp. I designed this harp to play my own compositions in my own style. I am a composer and arranger, and I have all this music in my head. I knew I needed to put the harp in different styles of music. 

The electric Venezuelan harp arrived in 2011, and in this moment, it was a surprise. It was my old instrument, but now it was new. There was a new sound, it had five more strings—37 total. We added five more strings in the bass because I had heard Michel Petrucciani on the piano, Jimmy Smith, and Eddy Louiss playing the Hammond organ and that big bass sound in the pedals, and I thought if this pianist can do the bass with their feet and play, I can play the bass on my harp and play the melody in the higher strings. It was a long process of many steps, but the Venezuelan electric harp has just reached its 10th anniversary. I have been working to develop my technique to play this harp and composing music to play on this harp with different ensembles. This was a big reason I moved to the United States—to explore these opportunities with this instrument. You know, it was a very critical situation in Venezuela. I had to leave to escape that situation.

HC: When did you leave Venezuela?

LJ: In 2013.

HC: And that was because of the political upheaval and the deteriorating situation for the Venezuelan people?

LJ: Yes, it was very bad. I moved to London for three years, while also traveling to concerts. Then I moved to Paris, Mexico, and Colombia. Now the United States.

HC: We’re delighted you’re here. You seem to have so much fun when you are playing. What do you love about playing music?

LJ: The harp is my life. I don’t need anything more. I love all kinds of music—country music, jazz, flamenco, the tango—wow, the tango is wonderful. One of my favorite composers is Rachmaninoff. I love it all. The music of my country and my people and all of these other styles from the world are in my heart, and I bring that passion to the harp. 

HC: I understand that you started the Venezuelan harp department in El Sistema—the famous Venezuelan program. Tell us how that came about.

Summit to Summit

A journey from a small town in the Andes Mountains to one of the world’s top music programs.

Leonard Jacome began playing the harp in his hometown of Rubio-Táchira in the Andes Mountains near Venezuela’s border with Colombia. He grew up playing the traditional llanera harp of Venezuela and Colombia, a 32-string instrument made of cedar wood with no levers or pedals. In 2002, he moved to Caracas to study music at the conservatory there. There Jacome took lessons on the pedal harp because there was no teacher for the Venezuelan harp. Several years later Jacome would become the first teacher of Venezuelan harp in the famed El Sistema music program.

LJ: I taught in El Sistema for five years. In 2002, I moved from my town in the Andes Mountains to Caracas to study in the conservatory, but they did not have a Venezuelan harp department at the time. So I studied pedal harp in the conservatory. My pedal harp teacher recommended that I stop studying pedal harp so that I could focus on my principal instrument, the Venezuelan harp, because my music had a high level of improvisation and virtuosity. She thought the pedal harp for me was not the right path. She told me I should explore opportunities in El Sistema with the Venezuelan harp. Maybe five or six years later I had a meeting with the founder of El Sistema, José Antonio Abreu. He had seen me playing with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, and he thought I played well on the Venezuelan harp and asked me how he could help me. I said to him, “Master, I want to open a Venezuelan harp department in El Sistema.” So we opened this department, and I had 30–40 students. I could share with the students the new ways of playing the harp and introduce different styles—Latin jazz, classical, Brazilian, etc.—not just joropo. Because in Venezuelan joropo music is very important and for joropo players, sometimes that’s all they play—other styles are not important to them. I don’t think in this way. Music is free; music is like water. You can play what you want to play. I was teaching in El Sistema, but when the situation in Venezuela became critical, I had to leave.

HC: Do you miss Venezuela?

LJ: Yes, every day. It’s a wonderful country with nice, sweet people, and the weather is beautiful. I hope the situation in my country can change.

HC: I have what might seem like a weird question. I know you play with your nails a lot. Is there anything special you do to care for them?

LJ: I use my nails for the higher strings, but not in the bass, in my style. So my right-hand nails are long, but my left-hand nails are short. I care for them by eating healthy food.

HC: So they are natural?

LJ: Yes, natural. I run and drink lots of water and eat vegetables and fruit every day, natural juices, olive oil, lots of garlic, and of course red wine [Laughs].

HC: When you’re not playing the harp, what do you enjoy doing?

LJ: My life is music [Laughs]. Every day I’m in the studio practicing and listening and producing. I can’t imagine my life without music. I don’t take vacations. Sometimes I go to the movies, and I love to cook, especially seafood—all sorts of seafood. 

HC: What’s next for you?

LJ: There are lots of things I’d like to do. I’d like to play my own compositions and record with an orchestra. I would like to play with Stevie Wonder—I love him. That is a dream. I would like to play in New York. I would like to open a Venezuelan harp department in a musical school in the United States to share and promote our techniques in Venezuelan harp. There are many things I want to accomplish. I am working on a book on Venezuelan harp techniques and history. I am in the process of starting a Latin American harp academy on the internet. 

HC: It sounds like you have a lot on your plate. What advice do you have for young people who hear your music and want to do what you do?

LJ: Music is free—play what you want to play. When I started, I practiced all day: 10 or 12 hours a day practicing and rehearsing. It’s important to appreciate different kinds of music and listen to good music.For example, I heard Bill Evans play in one session where he was able to create many different feelings for the listener. I think it’s important for young people to respect the diversity of music in the world. The most important thing is believing in yourself and play! Play! Play on!