Photo courtesy of the International Trova Festival.

On July 7, the Tom Lee Music Hall will be the host of the International Trova Festival: a night of music from Cuba and Spain, full of variety and fun. One of the artists performing at the festival is Beatriz Garmendia, who will be singing the slow and romantic boleros, one of most popular and classic styles of music in Latin America.

The musical style that is trova began in the late 19th century in Santiago de Cuba, where Bohemian musicians would play in parks, streets, bars and many other places, using the guitar as a main instrument. It soon became extremely popular through the radio and spread from Cuba across most of Latin America. One of the styles that sprang from it were the boleros, which became some of the most popular genres of music in the area.

A journey of music

Beatriz Garmendia.| Photo courtesy of Beatriz Garmendia.

One of the places that the boleros became popular was Venezuela, where Beatriz Garmendia listened to them growing up.

“I have memories of my mother singing them,” says Garmendia. “I grew up with that. They are what I used to listen to at my house, on the radio and long play discs.”

Garmendia moved to Canada in 1999 from Venezuela when she got married. Though she left the country where she was raised, the music that influenced her when she was young has stayed with her.

“Music has always been my passion – singing especially,” she says.

That passion is what led her to join a Vancouver-based Venezuelan singing group in 2000, as well as a Latin American choir a few years later. It was in the choir where she was first told that she should try singing without accompaniment.

“I was the soloist in the choir, and a lot of the people in it encouraged me to go solo, to try it,” she says.

So she began to sing in coffee shops and other places around the city, while still performing at home with her husband in their home studio.

“We play music all the time,” says Garmendia. “When we have friends over, we play. It’s just what we love to do.”

The producer of the International Trova Festival, Joaquin Gonzalez, invited her to perform at the event, which will be the first time Garmendia has performed at a festival. For Garmendia, the festival will be quite different from her other performances.

“The public won’t be only Latin American. This will be the first time the audience will be more diverse,” she says. “I see it as a way to introduce them to other music.”

A live experience

Garmendia will be performing a number of boleros at the International Trova Festival. According to her, boleros are often slow in tempo and the theme tends to be very romantic.

“It can be happy or sad,” she says. “But it’s always about love.”

While the boleros can be beautiful, their heyday was the early to mid-20th century. Now, they aren’t as common, with fewer new ones being released.

“Music and some people’s taste have evolved into other genres,” says Garmendia. “I’m going to be singing some of the classical boleros from the 1950s.”

And although they might be seen by some as a dying form of music, Garmendia’s performances seem to belie that statement.

“Young people and I love them,” she says. “Many Latin Americans have a strong sense of nostalgia. Sometimes when I’m performing they sing with me. We all know the words and we sing together.”

It’s that connection with the audience that has given Garmendia pause when thinking about trying to record her singing.

“It’s a lot of work and it’s just better live, because you receive the feedback right away,” she says.

On top of that, she feels that being in front of a receptive and listening audience simply changes the performance for the better.

“I’m normally shy, but when I go take the microphone it’s like I transform into someone else because of receiving all of the positive energy,” says Garmendia. “It just wouldn’t feel the same with a recording.”

For more information, visit www.carnavaldelsol.ca/international-trova-festival.