Theo Torres with bombo and zampona. Photo credit: Christopher Appoldt RETURN to ARTIST DIRECTORY

NAME: Theo Torres CULTURE: Peruvian GENRE: Huayno and chicha REGION: Long Island COUNTY: Suffolk BIO: Theo Torres was born in Lima, the capital of Peru. His family originally lived in Cajamarca, in northern Peru, but his family moved to Lima in search of greater economic opportunities. When Theo, one of nine children, attended school as a child, he’d “play the desk like a conga.” He studied drums and timbales in school, and sang in the church choir. He wanted to sing, but started as a percussionist instead. By 15, he was also singing, playing percussion instruments, and writings songs for various groups. He learned to play from friends and neighbors and by listening to the radio. As a teenager, he performed professionally in his neighborhood and surrounding communities. “I learned both traditional indigenous music and popular Latino songs while growing up,” he recalls. He moved to the U.S. in 1984, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. Theo established a typical Peruvian huayno group that included bombo, zampoña (panpipes) and guitar. Huayno is an Andean music, these songs have a distinct feature in that they always end with a fugue (fuga), which is played at a much faster tempo and usually taken from a completely different melody. In 1990, as the Peruvian and Latino populations began to swell in the Brentwood-Huntington area, Theo saw the need to change the group’s repertoire and instrumentation. This music was not unknown to him as he played timbales in salsa and cumbia bands in Lima. He established a Peruvian chicha group that included timbales, drums, guitar, bass guitar. Chicha is a hybrid music form that became popular in Peru in the late-1960s. It blends elements of Andean music with Colombian cumbia. Chicha is also called cumbia andina and features poetic mestizo songs about love, social issues and the migrant experience. Theo is an active educator of Peruvian music and culture at several schools in Long Island, and in 2005, he was awarded an apprenticeship grant by New York State Council of the Arts as a master composer and musician. Today, Theo can be heard performing in small clubs and private parties as soloist with music tracks, and with his larger group that features the basic chicha ensemble plus congas, bongos, cowbell, and electronic drum set. This instrumentation is also found in Peru today, and is often referred to as techno cumbia. In order to appeal to a now larger and mixed Latino audience, Torres and his group perform salsa, Colombian, Salvadorian and Mexican cumbias, Spanish baladas, boleros and merengues if the audience and occasion demands. In addition to chicha and techno cumbia songs written by Theo himself, the group includes musica criolla, which is considered the national music of Peru. It is a deeply poetic song form played in waltz-time. DISCOGRAPHY: SOLO 2002 (self-produced) LISTEN to Adios amor adios (.mp3) WEBSITE: Theo’s artist profile is available on the Long Island Traditions website. CONTACT: theo0752@hotmail.com

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