To date, the Puerto Rican Cuatro
Project has created :
• A historic chronology, yet to be published, of the Puerto Rican musical instrument
traditions from the Discovery to the present day•
A technical chronology following the evolution of the physical forms and craft techniques
of the family of Puerto Rican stringed instruments
• A collection of over a hundred transcribed oral
history interviews with the most prominent players, makers and scholars in the field; and
with elders who remember the musical life of the cuatro many years ago.
• A collection of hundreds of new and recovered
photographs and recordings.
• A feature-length video documentary,"Our
Cuatro: Puerto RIcans and their String Instruments." Our Cuatro, Part II,
and "Puerto Rican Music in Hawaii" are both currently in production
• A collection of historic films on Puerto Rican musical traditions
• A collection of Puerto Rican stringed instruments, old, new and re-created from
research
• The recreation of a nineteenth-century musical ensemble, Orquesta Jibara Antigua, that
plays traditional music of the last century on reproduced instruments of the period.
• The mounting of five major Cuatro festivals; the first at the Children's Museum at
Holyoke, Massachusetts, the second at Rutgers University in Newark, NJ, the third at
Hostos Community College in Bronx, NY; a fourth at the Roberto Clemente Academy in Chicago
and a fifth in the National Museum of American History of Washington , DC, produced for
the Smithsonian Institution.
• Sponsorship of several live performances and the organizing of several exhibits in
the northeastern United States. These include a live performance of Pedrito Guzman and
Jibaro Jazz at the Blue Note Jazz Club; in New York City, a performance of the Cuatro
Project's Orquesta Jibara at Carnegie Hall and on stage with Pete Seeger at the People's
Music Network Winter Gathering, several concerts on the East Coast with Edwin Colón
Zayas, Yomo Toro, Prodigio Claudio, and Alvin "El Jibarito" Medina, and numerous
smaller educational presentations at schools and colleges around the New England area. |
Cuatro with coquí inlay in
headstock made at the webmaster
William Cumpiano's studio.
Cuatro jam session by cuatromaking students at webmaster William Cumpiano's students
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