February 28 th, 2010 By Roberto Palmitesta 

One of the most representative pianists of the Venezuelan tradition will tour Spain, France, and Holland including presentations in important festivals.

Prisca Dávila has been invited to perform in Spain, France, and Europe after having a successful tour in 2009. This time around, the tour will include important festivals and cultural events. The pianist will be traveling on March 14^th and will return to Venezuela on April 26^th to give various concerts at several important music halls around Venezuela.

The tour begins on March 17^th in Madrid at La Escalera de Jacob (www.laescaleradejacob.es/) to carry on at Contraclub where she’ll be playing for the second time (www.contraclub.es)

On March 19^th, she’ll debut at Sala Barco Bar (http://www.barcobar.com/). It is important to point out that Europe celebrates various activities to commemorate Woman’s History Month. The before mentioned concerts are part of the “Festival Ellas Crean 2010” (http://www.ellascrean.com/), and the corresponding schedule for the “live music halls”.

“I am so happy with the result of my previous tour around the European continent that I’ve been invited once again”, said the pianist. “It makes me very happy to see how Venezuelan music is well regarded in countries like Spain and France where people are very curious about our rhythms”, she added.

Prisca will be giving a recital for the feminist cultural institution FundaciónEntrededos on March 20^thwhere she had previously played last year. The pianist received excellent comments by both critics and audiences. The presentation will be the last in Spanish territory.

The pianist will play a repertoire of jazz, Venezuelan and academic music fusion during her concerts, in addition to songs from her four outings including her own compositions. Her father Eduardo Dávila will accompany her on saxophones and flutes; Manuel Torcatt, a Venezuelan residing in Spain, on bass; Iván Díaz on drums and Hilda Hernández on percussion, both Venezuelans living in Madrid.

“I feel very happy because I count on excellent friends and very talented musicians who are going to support me on the tour. I am very thankful for all the help they have given me, and I am very glad to have my father Eduardo Dávila coming to play with me.”, commented the artist in regards to the musicians that are going to play with her in Spain.

France, the next destination

Prisca will arrive in France to perform at Festival XVIII Culturamerica, an event that takes place at various theaters in the French Pyrenees. In addition to her performances, she is going to give master class at a local school. The class on Venezuelan music and it is aimed at young students.

TheFestival XVIII Culturamerica (www.festival.culturamerica.free.fr) is an event that promotes Latin American culture in various artistic areas. The dates of Prisca’s performances are the following:

·         Wednesday March 24^that Universidad de Bayonne.

·         Thursday March 25^that SEMEAC (Centre Albert Camus) 

·         Friday March 26^that MOURENX (M.J.C.L.)              

·         Saturday March 27^that PAU (Le Méliès)                        

·         Sunday March 28^that GARLIN (cinéma). A Venezuelan film will be shown after the concert.

Prisca will be traveling to Marseille after the Festival. There, she’ll be performing a duet with French pianist Simón Bolzinger on April 2^nd. The performance is entitled “A Dos Pianos Vamos”. The Venezuelan and French pianists will be performing at Bastide de la Magalone. They’ll interpret a Venezuelan and Latin American repertoire at two pianos.

The Canary Island Tour

Prisca has made a space in her tight European schedule to promote her work in Tenerife, Canary Islands. She’ll be playing there from April 7^th thru April 12^th. This Spanish region shelters many Venezuelans.

The Tour Goes On In Holland

Prisca will be traveling to Amsterdam on April 13^th where she’ll be perfoming at the renowned Badcuyp Amsterdam (www.badcuyp.nl) the next day. She will also play on April 18^th in the city of Delft.

The famous Venezuelan percussionist GerardoRosaleswill invite Prisca to perform with him on April 16^th and 17^th.  This switch of genre will have Prisca playing salsa at various Dutch venues where the percussionist will show his latest project entitled “Son Desempleado” or “Unemployed Son” as in the Cuban rhythm. Prisca recorded on this CD that is about to be launched.

Prisca will play with her father Eduardo Dávila on saxophones and flutes, Manuel Torcatt on bass and, of course, Gerardo Rosales on percussion.

Tour Wraps Up in Spain

Prisca will end her tour at Bar El Savor and at Café Delicatessen on April 21^st and 22^nd in Salamanca, where she was particularly successful in the summer of 2009 tour.

Prisca’s 2010 tour won’t end in Europe. The pianist will be performing at various important venues in Venezuela along many outstanding national and international artists.

The famous singer/pianist comes back with a refined combination of music, history, and even fashion designs.

The renowned Venezuelan pianist and singer Prisca Dávila releases the second part to her “Piano En Canto Venezolano I”. The release is now her fourth outing. The pianist’s musical work focuses on rhythms that she did not present in her previous CD. Rhythms like calypso, joropo con estribillo, tarma drum tonada or tambora gaita are present here. “Piano En Canto Venezolano II” is the result of a vast musical-historical investigation that took place in various regions of her native country. She combined her historian side with the musical one since she’s a Historian graduate from Universidad Central de Venezuela.

<<Venezuelan music is very broad and diverse. It has such great amount of genres and rhythms that it takes me to explore it constantly so that I can have more knowledge about it. We, historians, call this “calibration sources” and it allows us to know our music in depth so that we can write new compositions based on that knowledge>>, declared Prisca regarding her research on the subject. 

Father-daughter chemistry.

Prisca’s previous album featured songs written by renowned composers, but this time around she has included her own compositions as well as previously unreleased songs written by her father Eduardo Dávila. The chemistry existing between them has been seen on stage, and it comes out again in the recording studio.

<<My father is a real poet. He’s developed a beautiful lyricism. We’ve been working together in compositions  like “Pikirillo”. In this album, we work together in the quirpa “Prisco” and the polo margariteño “Amor y Mar”. He also wrote the lyrics to “Tonada de la Despedida”, “Malembe” and “Todo Mi Amor”. In addition, he recorded backing vocals, and played tenor and soprano saxophones>>, said Prisca about her father’s role in her new album.

A Colorful Vernacular Repertoire.

<< The criteria for “Piano En Canto Venezolano II” was to work with the musical regions of Venezuela that we did not work with in the previous album. That took us to the Afro-Venezuelan music, the Andean and eastern regions. It also led us to work with composers we hadn’t work with like Rafael Salazar, César Prato, Hernán Marín, Lourdes Basante and Juan Pablos Ceballos >> said the artist referring to how the repertoire was selected.

<< I always choose a song by Aldemaro. I chose “Carretera” in my previous work, and this time I chose “El Catire” for being one of the songs I like the most. I like the form of the composition and also because it shows what a genius the maestro Aldemaro was >>, explained Prisca.

Once again, Prisca chose maestro William Sigismondi as the arranger. He also took part in the production, recording and musical research. He is the composer of the song “Tonada de la Despedida”. Sigismondi is well known for his work with Ilan Chester, Franco De Vita and Cecilia Todd, among others.

<<William Sigismondi is a wonderful arranger, musical producer and friend, besides being pianist and composer which means we have an affinity there. He has an impressive knowledge about Venezuelan music as well as recording technology. He is also a very organized person and a great musical producer. He really knows where we are going and knows my work as pianist, singer and composer deeply>>, emphasized Prisca.

Prisca goes further on and explain the production and repertoire: << My father, William and I selected the songs always looking after the balance between fast, medium and slow tempo tunes. Then, we screened them and left those who passed the test in term of final arrangement and preproduction. That is why we had 20 songs during the preproduction and ended up selecting just 12 songs>>.

December, 2009, Caracas, Venezuela.

The pianist Prisca Davila is one of the 100 personalities of the Venezuelan magazine “Etiqueta” in the anniversary edition November- December 2009. She shares this award, with the flute-player Huascar Barradas, the orchestra conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the guitarist Aquiles Baez and the pianist Gabriela Montero, between other artists. 

Barcelona (España), El País Newspaper, 1 de noviembre de 2004

Prisca Dávila would be a name to remember if it weren’t because Venezuela is, mediatically speaking, so far from Barcelona. We know very little about the musical events that take place in that country so the pianist presentation in our city has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the season. 
Dávila has just recorded a magnificent CD entitled Piano Jazz Venezolano and demonstrated at the jamboree that the benefits of a recording gain power before a live audience.  She enwraps herself in a highly contagious Latin jazz rooted in her native Venezuela with a precise pianistic technique without free ornaments where traditional rhythms are delivered with a powerful swing far from stridency but plenty of great taste and elegance. 
She kicked off alone performing a danceable Venezuelan waltz, despite her shameless classical tendency, to be joined later on by a bassist, a percussionist and a drummer who perfectly assembled with her to form a quartet. 
Dávila played effortlessly within the foursome often coming and going from contemporary jazz to merengue frequently enlightening her performance. 
Davila played original compositions as well as others written by her father Eduardo Dávila and a Viennese pianist and composer adopted by Venezuela who we must include in a list of names to be discovered: Gerry Weil.