Learn about Puerto Rican bomba singing, songs, and history from one of our bomba masters and elders, Nelie Lebrón Robles.
Voices and Song in Puerto Rican Bomba is an interactive historical journey through the role of female voices in bomba music. Participants will be able to hear the voices of ancestral women, know their stories and sing some of the bomba songs that have empowered female singers to have a “voice” in a traditionally male dominated genre. Maraca is suggested.
Limited spaces available.
Sunday, August 29th, 2021
1pm to 2pm ET
DanceFXBG
902 Caroline St.
Fredericksburg, VA
We will follow the CDC and Virginia Department of Health guidelines for indoor events. Be ready to wear a mask.
“Nelie Lebrón Robles is a Puerto Rican singer, bassist and music educator at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. Since 1981, she is the lead singer of the Bomba and Plena ensemble, Paracumbé, directed by Puerto Rican ethnomusicologist Emanuel Dufrasne González. Prof. Lebrón is a graduate from the University of Puerto Rico, where she completed her Master of Arts in Education. She taught in the Puerto Rico Public School System for 17 years, where in 1994 she was bestowed the National Teacher of the Year Award. During that year, she represented Puerto Rico in a number of national and international education events.
As the lead singer of Paracumbé, Nelie is responsible of the ensemble´s vocal arrangements. With Paracumbé she has traveled to North and South America, The Caribbean and Europe. She was the first singer to perform bomba in the prestigious Casals Festival with the Brass Section of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with the New York Symphony, where she sang the piece Bomba Sinfónica by renowed Puerto Rican Composer William Cepeda. Nelie has also collaborated with international artists Rie Akagi, Leo Brouer, René Pérez, and Los Vasallos de Venezuela, among others. She has participated in numerous recordings, including Voices of Latin Women, Latin Lullabies, Bomba Sinfónica, and three cds with Paracumbé. Since 2006, she is the producer of Ambos a Dos, Cuentos y Canciones, a radio show which is dedicated to music for children form all parts of the world (Sundays, 8:00 am radiouniversidad.pr)
Her latest projects include writing two music education guides for preschoolers, her first music story collection for children, and producing the latest video for Paracumbé. She is an active member or the Movimiento de la Cancion Infantil Latinoamericana y Caribeña, the Latin American Music Education Forum and the National Association for Music Education. She is a collaborator of Radio MOCILYC, and has travelled as a teacher and speaker about Puerto Rican music, Womens’ roles in music, and children´s music in the US, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, the Caribbean, Spain, France, The Netherlands and Belgium. She has participated in numerous other virtual conferences and workshops in Peru, Chicago, Minnesota, Argentina, Brasil, and Uruguay, among othes places.
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Watch this video to learn more about bomba, and our organization Semilla Cultural:
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*This project is partially supported by funding from the Fredericksburg Arts Commission, the Virginia Humanities, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rapp Arts and Culture. We thank the following entities for their partnership and support: the University of Mary Washington, the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc., the Fredericksburg Area Museum, and CLAVES UNIDOS.
