Piper Xuacu Amieva was born October 12, 1954 in Llanes, Spain. He’s one of the acknowledged figures in the field of Asturian traditional music. His extended career as a much awarded piper, teacher of piping and multi-instrumentalist in several folk bands has garnered him an excellent reputation both in his native Asturias and the rest of Spain.
His repertoire runs a wide range of songs and melodies from the Asturian tradition including not only pipe tunes but also pieces originally played on the rebec, the hurdy-gurdy or the flute or coming from the vocal tradition.
Xuacu started his career in 1975 by doing ethnographic research and taking part in folk fairs together with bands such as Raigañu and Urogallos.
In 1980 he started to impart piping lessons in Oviedo, an activity which has taken him to other places in Asturias and continues to this day. In 1984 he and Francisco Ortega co-authored the first Asturian bagpipe method. In 1987 his piping school in Oviedo spawned a pipe band called Narancu for which he acts as musical director.
He was a founder member of folk groups Beleño (1983) and Ubiña (1985) until they disbanded in 1989. Either with these bands or as a soloist he took part in many festivals and traditional music gatherings both in Asturias and the rest of Spain and Europe.
Starting from 1990 he embarked on a solo career playing a lot of festivals in Europe with different accompanying line-ups.
He has been writing music for television documentaries and short films. He also wrote the script for a documentary on Asturian musical instruments. Xuacu Amieva is passionate about disseminating Asturian traditional music. He collaborates with several schools playing multi-instrument concerts with bagpipe, rebec, hurdy-gurdy, flutes, percussion and vocals.
Xuacu Amieva’s album Tiempo de mitos contains pieces based on some mythological figures from the Asturian folklore.
He collaborated with The Chieftains singing and playing rebec on a track of their Grammy-awarded album Santiago.
Discography:
Metodo de Gaita (Sociedad Fonografica Asturiana 1984)
Onde l’agua az (Sociedad Fonografica Asturiana 1986)
Ubiña (Fonoastur 1988)
Xostrando (Fonoastur 1989)
Lluna caldia (Gau Records 1992)
Tiempo de mitos (Ediciones Resistencia 1999)
Al Son del Fueu (Piraña Family Producciones 2003)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
