Huáscar Barradas

Flutist Huáscar Barradas crosses genres from classical to jazz, Venezuelan folk music, and more. He has made recordings in various styles and is also a composer. Barradas was born in Maracaibo in Venezuela's Zulia state on June 12, 1964. He was drawn to classical music by Walt Disney cartoons and by a production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker that he saw when he was nine. Barradas enrolled for flute studies at the José Luis Paz Conservatory in Maracaibo, and he became a founding member of the Venezuelan National Children's Orchestra, established as part of the famed El Sistema national youth music education program. Interested from the start in ethnic music as well as classical forms, he performed with the Estudiantina Juvenil folkloric ensemble in Zulia state. Barradas gave his first solo recital at the age of 12, and he also played in a Caribbean music band as a teen. When he was 17, he earned a scholarship from the Zulia state government, and he used the money to travel to the U.S. After winning a Texas Junior College competition, Barradas traveled to New York, where he studied flute at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music with Bernard Goldberg, jazz at the City College of New York with bassist Ron Carter, and orchestral conducting at the Juilliard School with Vincent la Selva. Barradas earned a bachelor's degree cum laude from the Brooklyn College Conservatory. At that point, he returned to Venezuela, spending a year as a flutist with the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra. He then earned a German government scholarship for further study in that country. He remained in Germany for five years, studying Baroque music at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt with Michael Schneider and Mirjam Nastasi. While in Germany, he recorded his debut album, Huáscar Barradas: Folklore from Venezuela, in 1992. Returning once again to his home country, Barradas entered and won a competition for the position of principal flutist with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Venezuela. He also performed for nine years with the Municipal Symphony of Caracas. Barradas formed several ensembles of his own and has recorded with them, twice with the Venezuelan Acoustic Trio and multiple times with the multi-genre Huáscar Barradas y Maracaibo. He also recorded the jazz album My Favorite Things and the live album Entre Amigos, both in 2006. In 2022, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra issued the album Huáscar Barradas: Four Elements -- Immersive Symphony for Orchestra and Chorus.
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