Cavour, Ernesto (1940–)

The Bolivian folkloric musician Ernesto Cavour is renowned worldwide as a charango (Andean stringed instrument) soloist. Born April 9, 1940, in La Paz, he received his first major distinction in 1965, as "best instrumentalist" at the Latin American Folklore Festival in Salta, Argentina. The next year he founded Los Jairas—arguably Bolivia's most influential folkloric ensemble—with fellow La Paz residents Julio Godoy and Edgar "Yayo" Joffré along with the Swiss musician Gilbert Favre. Cavour also formed the Trio Domínguez-Favre-Cavour, known for its innovative instrumental repertoire. In 1969 both ensembles became the first Bolivian folkloric groups to tour Europe. Cavour returned to La Paz in 1971, devoting his attention to running the folkloric music venue Peña Naira (closed in 1996) and the Museum of Bolivian Musical Instruments (still in operation as of 2007). Cavour has authored widely read method books for various instruments and texts about local musical traditions. He serves as president of the Bolivian Charango Society, which he helped establish in 1973.

See alsoMusic: Popular Music and Dance .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Works

Instrumentos musicales de Bolivia. La Paz: Producciones CIMA, 1994.

El charango: Su vida, costumbres y desventuras. 2nd edition. La Paz: Producciones CIMA, 2001.

Secondary Works

Rios, Fernando. "Music in Urban La Paz, Bolivian Nationalism, and the Early History of Cosmopolitan Andean Music: 1936–1970." Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.

                                        Fernando Rios