Singer, musician and folklorist, Tomás Lozano, stands as one of the world’s greatest modern-day keepers of Spain’s Romances. These ballads are ancient oral poetry of rural and medieval origin. Lozano is one of very few performers in the United States to deliver this art form at Universities, Colleges and a wide range of audiences. What author J.R. Jiménez describes as “the river of the Spanish language,” Lozano landscapes into vignettes of idyllic fantasy. Listeners experience the waking of dawn, messenger nightingales, maidens sleeping or combing with golden combs their long golden hair, lovers dying, princes singing, and sailors in vessels crossing enchanted oceans.
Tomás Lozano masterfully recasts the recurring symbolic themes into fresh renditions of Spain’s most loved ballads. Lozano accompanies his singing with guitar, hurdy-gurdy, or tambourine. He weaves light and entertaining historical explanations between songs. Concerts last approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Reviews for the Romances
I loved the romances, loved hearing the elegant old Castilian, Galician and Català
The evening (Feb. 19th, 2013) was one of those rare and so much cherished times when the soul simply soars and the heart sings. I loved the romances, loved hearing the elegant old Castilian and
Català. You have a great gift and you give it to us with open hands and heart. Thank you. Again, no words to describe how graced I felt leaving your recital.
Anya Petersen Royce, PhD, D.Litt Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature Indiana University, Bloomington, IN External Examiner, MA Etchnochoreology, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland.
On Saturday April 23, 2011 at the Ethnic Cultural Theater, singer, musician, and folklorist Tomás Lozano entertained an enthusiastic audience of University of Washington students and faculty, local Spanish teachers, and members of the larger Latino community with a moving performance of Hispanic Ballads sung in Castilian, Galician, Catalan, and Judeo-Spanish, and representative of the ancient and modern oral traditions of the Iberian Peninsula and of the Sephardim. Alternating effectively between lighthearted and more tragic ballad themes, Lozano’s haunting voice and his impressive, at times, dazzling musicianship delighted his listeners from the first song to the last encore, as did his sparingly interspersed, well-delivered mini-histories of a ballad or of the regional diversity in ballad instrumentation, or his mini-lesion on how to make the hurdy gurdy produce it’s melodic, if hypnotic, buzzing sound. It’s difficult to imagine an audience that this charismatic and talented young performer could not captivate within a matter of minutes, as indeed he did on this memorable occasion.
Suzanne H. Petersen NW Cadiz Program, Executive Director Div. of Spanish & Portuguese Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Tomás Lozano es un virtuoso de la música que, con la ayuda de sus instrumentos tradicionales y sus comentarios lúdico pedagógicos, sabe transportarnos a la época de los cortesanos, los pícaros y los mercados en las plazas porticadas de la España del medievo y del barroco. Un concierto de Tomás Lozano es un lujo para un filólogo o un historiador, a la vez que consigue ser puro deleite para los oídos profanos en la materia.
Fernando Martín Education advisor Director – Spanish Resource Center Spanish Resource Center – National Hispanic Cultural Center 1701 4th St. SW Albuquerque NM
The music of Tomás Lozano echoes from the late Middle Ages across an uninterrupted span of more than 500 years. His performance of traditional ballads draws on true native memory – Lozano grew up with these songs ringing in his home and on his street corners, strummed in shady plazas and during hushed evenings on the patio. His seductive musicality, deep professionalism and just plain charm make his audiences laugh, clap, sigh with appreciation. I have uses his lyrical recordings as study pieces in my classes on international Hispanic forms and these were clearly my students’ most embraced, and best remembered assignments.
George Greenia Professor of Hispanic Studies College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
The balladeer, Tomás Lozano, consummate musician and master craftsman, spellbinds his audiences with his golden voice as he plays instruments he himself has made. His repertoire covers a wide array of ballads from the classical to
the contemporary. His pacing of songs cum introductions guarantees an informative and delightful experience for all.
