EducArte: Larry & Joe
EducArte and Joe's Movement Emporium are are proud to present this eclectic, virtuosic, and charismatic duo. Upon seeing Larry & Joe at an intimate house concert, EducArte's co-founders Kate Spanos and Pablo Regis knew they had to bring Larry & Joe to the wider public in the Washington, DC area. Larry & Joe exemplify EducArte's mission to expand vibrant and boundary defying mission for equity in the arts. More about College Park-based Latino arts nonprofit EducArte here.
Larry & Joe were destined to make music together.
Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela, and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and old-time musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. After a decade in South America, Joe got stranded back in his stomping grounds during the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe’s acclaimed “latingrass” band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum-seeking migrants.
Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo, they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on the harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, upright bass, and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions and storytelling about how music and social movements coalesce.