Thank you for another successful Venezuelan Week!

Leonard Jacome concerts in Malaysia!

Gastronomic Festival starts this week!

25th to 28th October 2016 @ Impiana Hotel KLCC

6:30pm to 10pm

29th October 2016

12 noon to 3pm

6:30pm to 10pm

Buen provecho!

See you there!

11th Venezuelan Week Officially Opened!

The 11th Venezuelan Week was officially opened and launched yesterday by Higher Education Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Mary Yap Kain Ching in Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia (ITBM).

HE Manuel Guzman, YB Dr Mary Yap and ITBM's Translation and Training Department head, Siti Rafiah Sulaiman having a quick read of 'Malaysia-Venezuela, an Anthology of Short Stories' involving Malaysian and Venezuelan writers, which have been translated into Malay, Spanish and English.

Venezuelan Harp Master Class

Chef Tamara is back for the Gastronomic Festival!

Combining 20 years of journalism and her passion for cooking, celebrity chef Tamara Rodriguez is a firm believer in general education and has committed herself to lecturing on gastronomy at local universities in Venezuela while actively reaching out to encourage the public to participate in the use of cocoa in cooking.

She also has merged ‘communication with cooking’ by operating her own radio station for her community, a fishing village in Rio Caribe. The radio station airs programmes on cooking, health and communal subjects targeted at helping the villagers cope with the challenges of daily life and a special programme on the preservation of education to benefit the youth. 

Tamara’s roots in local culinary cooking remains deeply entrenched as many of her recipes reflect a legacy of Venezuelan cuisine that has been handed down by her forefathers. Delicious platters with an amalgamation of Spanish, Portuguese, French and Caribbean tastes flavoured with an authentic blend Venezuelan cocoa and spices are Tamara signature in her dishes. 

Leonard Jacome will be in Kuala Lumpur!

Harpist, arranger, composer and producer with more than 19 years of experience, Leonard Jacome is one of the Venezuela's most prolific and accomplished harpists.

A true multi-instrumentalist, Jacome who took up cuatro, guitar and acoustic bass before finally found his calling and what he calls as “the owner of my life”, the Venezuelan harp, he formally started studying at Francisco J. Marciales Music School where he studied clarinet and then cuatro, musical theory and solfeggio in 1992.

He has numerous awards representing Venezuela abroad and has toured and performed throughout Latin America, Europe, Africa and Japan.In November 2008, Leonard represented Venezuela at the II World Harp Festival in Paraguay andhe released his first recording in 2009. Under the name Leonard Jácome & his cuerdas bajo presión Empírico, the harpist’s music is characterized for its exotic blend of rhythms, melodies and harmonies form around the world. From a loud joropo to a Paraguayan polka to an afro-Venezuelan drum with an African harp or even a smooth and passionate tango.

Leonard Jacome is now also the Head of the Venezuelan harp Cathedra for the National Orchestra System at Simón Bolívar Conservatory of Music. In order to carry forward the education, evolution, research, understanding and spreading of the Venezuelan harp, he designed the first prototype of a Venezuelan electric harp with the help of the renowned harp French manufacturer CAMAC-HARPS. Among the many features, the instrument is made of carbon fibre. Leonard currently studies new ways and advanced harp-playing techniques in favour of the advancement of the instrument within the context of the various music of the world.

'Latin Americans; Who are we?"

For this year's  Simón Bolívar Lecture Series, Venezuelan Ambassador to Singapore since 2009, HE Alfredo Toro Hardy will be speaking on the topic of 'Latin Americans; Who are we?".

Abstract

"Where does the term Latin America comes from? Who are the Latin Americans? Is Latin

America a part of the Western World? What are the similarities and the differences between Spanish speaking and Portuguese speaking Latin Americans?  What are the similarities and the differences between the diverse Spanish speaking Latin American countries? Why do the United States and Latin America take a different path? Can we speak of Latin America and the Caribbean region as a single entity? All these questions aim at providing a general but comprehensive overview about that region of the world."

11th Venezuelan Week in Malaysia Program (20 to 30 October 2016 )

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

Tuesday 11^th October

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm: 

Bolivar Series at 5^th International Seminar Latin American and Asian Studies at University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

Thursday 20^th October

10:00 am to 12:00 pm: 

Official Opening of the 11^th Venezuelan Week in Malaysia at the Malaysian Institute of Translation & Books (ITBM)

Monday 24^th October

6:30 pm to 10:00 pm: 

*Launching of the Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC
*(By invitation only)

Tuesday 25^th October

6:30:00 pm to 10:00 pm: 

Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC

Wednesday 26^th October

9:00 am to 5:00 pm: 

Cooking Workshop (HELP)

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm: 

Chocolate, rum and cigars tasting at Hotel Impiana KLCC

6:30 pm to 10:00 pm: 

Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC

Thursday 27^th October

6:30 pm to 8:30 pm: 

Music Workshop at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm: 

Chocolate, rum and cigars tasting at Hotel Impiana KLCC

6:30 pm to 10:00 pm: 

Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC

Friday 28^th October

6:30 pm to 10:00 pm: 

Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC

Saturday 29^th October

12:00 pm to 3:00 pm: 

Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC

6:30 pm to 10:00 pm: 

Gastronomic Festival at Hotel Impiana KLCC

8:30 pm to 10:30 pm: 

Leonard Jacome concert at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS

Sunday 30^th October

3:30 pm to 5:30 pm: 

Leonard Jacome concert at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS

Celebrating Friendship

This year’s Venezuelan Week in Malaysia, which celebrates its eleventh edition, coincides with a significant fact for us: it has been thirty years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Malaysia. Three decades of meeting, of coincidences, mutual support, search for opportunities, exchanges, knowledge, promotion, highlighting the ties that unites us. Thirty years of friendship.

What has been achieved in this time is not small.  Slowly, but consistently, trade has increased. Many Malaysian vehicles travel on streets and avenues paved with Venezuelan crude oil. Many Venezuelans have computer components that were made in Malaysia. Music, dance, food, photography, painting and Venezuelan cinema have brought to these lands our way of understanding life; they have provided a fairly complete example of the cultural wealth of the country. Mutual political support in the various multilateral organisations, such as the United Nations, underscore the fact that we share much the same views when it comes to international politics. Two young countries, proud of their independent status, fighting for a new international order based on peace, cooperation and respect for sovereignty. Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Malaysia have passed without serious problems or discrepancies.  On the contrary, it has been a positive relationship from all points of view.

But as we look forward, we note that there is much greater potential to be gained from this relationship; we have past and present, but above all, we have a future. We are pleased with our progress in these thirty years, safe in the knowledge that when the time comes, we will celebrate sixty years of diplomatic relations with a longer list of achievements, which will be more significant.

This eleventh Venezuelan week in Malaysia celebrates friendship with the 31 strings of the harp that has marked Venezuelan musician Leonard Jácome’s career and life, and who will be performing in the hall of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at Petronas Twin Towers.  It will find rich company in the gastronomic art of chef Tamara Rodríguez, in the first Venezuelan novel translated into Bahasa Malaysia, ‘Doña Bárbara’, and in a new edition of the Simón Bolívar lectures, among other activities. Well, here's the program. Here is a renewed sign of our commitment to reinforce good relations between Venezuela and Malaysia.

Manuel Guzmán, Ambassador of Venezuela to Malaysia

11th Venezuelan Week in Malaysia