Venezuela: Antonio Lauro and His Classical Guitar · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

On the 91st anniversary of his birth,  Antonio Lauro is remembered as one of the most representative ways that culture can become part of one's identity. A very talented composer born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, Lauro composed waltzes and other pieces for guitar.  These pieces are often played by a lot of famous national and international guitarrists. In the same way, as part of the group Trio Cantores del Trópico, Lauro managed to contribute to the Venezuela's musical heritage converting original European structures into melodies that sound very much like the Venezuelan idiosyncrasies.  He toured extensively around neighboring countries to spread the sounds of Venezuelan music.
Some Venezuelan bloggers like Rosa of Las Cosas de Rosa [es] remember Lauro and writes an interesting post about the musician (with music files, links and pictures) and points out:
Antonio Lauro es considerado como uno de los principales maestros latinoamericanos de la guitarra, contribuyendo además a ampliar de manera definitiva el repertorio universal de ese instrumento.
Antonio Lauro is considered as one of the most impotant Latin American maestros with the guitar, and also contributed to definitively amplify this instrument's universal repertory.
Eduardo Casanova writes in his blog Literanova [es]:
Fue mi profesor de música en el Colegio Santiago de León de Caracas, en donde organizó un pequeño coro, tal como lo había hecho en muchos colegios, con lo que fue el verdadero creador del movimiento coral venezolano, que tantos éxitos ha logrado. Con muchísimo orgullo oí varias de sus obras en emisoras radiales europeas, mientras viví en Europa, porque el Profesor Lauro es el músico venezolano, y hasta latinoamericano, más conocido en el mundo.
He was my music teacher at school, where he created a little choir, as he did in many schools, which made him the true creator of the choral movement in Venezuela, which had been very successful. With great pride, I had the oportunity to listen to his works on European radio stations. Professor Lauro is the most recognized composer born in Venezuela, or even in Latin America.
“Natalia” is one of Venezuela's most representative pieces of modern Venezuelan “classical” music. Lauro wrote it for his only daughter and is nowadays not only recognized for its fine beauty, but also for being a challenging piece among guitarists (which can be seen in the coments below the video):
Tan Toche publishes an interesting video in which famous artists give playing “Natalia” a try.
In this video, the composer plays a lullaby he composed for his grandaughter, María Cristina in a guitar made especially for him.