Simón Díaz: Icon of Venezuelan music (+seeding)

On February 19, 2014, Simón Díaz, better known as Tío Simón, died, an outstanding composer and singer of our Venezuelan music.

The oldest of eight siblings was called “Chato”, long before he became the uncle of Venezuelans. His father, Juan Díaz, encouraged him to learn to play the Venezuelan four and to compose and sing boleros. After his death, Simon, with his brothers and mother, moved from Barbacoas (Aragua state) to San Juan de los Morros, where he was the new man in the family. Internationally known for being the author of Caballo Viejo, Mi Querencia, Tonada de Luna Lena and La Vaca Mariposa; among others, he began his career in 1948 and studied at the Escuela Superior de Música, and later joined the Cantata Criolla.

He received the most important prize awarded by the Venezuelan State: the Order of the Liberator in its Order of the Grand Cordon, constituting himself the only national artist to whom this distinction has been imposed. He was the champion of the rescue of the Tonada Llanera, music that he dedicated himself to disseminating, studying and composing, until it constituted an authentic musical genre in which great exponents have managed to express themselves. In the same way, outstanding directors and composers of academic music have brought Simón Díaz's tunes to the language of symphony orchestra and choral arrangements, thus sealing the universal character of this Venezuelan musical genre.