Projects

THE ANGEL FALLS ORCHESTRA

The Angel Falls Orchestra is a large-scale orchestral project created by Eliana Cuevas, bringing together a 27-piece ensemble of Canada’s top classical musicians to fuse Venezuelan folk traditions with the power and scope of a symphony orchestra. Arranged, conducted, and produced by JUNO Award-winning pianist Jeremy Ledbetter, the project represents Cuevas’ most expansive and cinematic musical vision to date.

Named after Venezuela’s iconic Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfall, the orchestra is conceived as both a cultural statement and a deeply personal artistic vehicle. At its heart, the project reimagines Venezuelan folk repertoire—particularly Afro-Venezuelan rhythmic traditions—through rich orchestral textures, creating a sound that is at once grounded, expansive, and globally resonant.

The repertoire blends original compositions with traditional works, transforming intimate songs into sweeping, large-scale arrangements while preserving their emotional and rhythmic essence. The music shifts seamlessly between delicate, chamber-like passages and full orchestral climaxes, allowing Cuevas’ voice to explore themes of memory, identity, and cultural continuity with striking expressive range.

Central to the project is Seré Libre, a body of work that reflects on personal loss, artistic legacy, and the longing for freedom—both individual and collective. Through this lens, the Angel Falls Orchestra becomes more than an ensemble: it is a storytelling vehicle, bridging generations and geographies while amplifying the cultural richness of Venezuela on an international stage.

Designed for both concert presentation and immersive multimedia performance, the project has been realized through live orchestral recordings, cinematic film capture, and Dolby Atmos audio production, offering audiences a fully realized, multi-sensory experience of Cuevas’ music.

THE ANGEL FALLS STRING QUARTET

Eliana Cuevas embodies the spirit of music as a bridge between cultures, blending the rich traditions of her Venezuelan heritage with the innovative artistry of jazz and global influences. Her voice is a revelation—pure, expressive, and capable of conveying profound emotion in every note. With her, music transcends language, connecting audiences through the universal themes of love, resilience, and beauty.

The collaboration between Eliana and the Angel Falls String Quartet is nothing short of magical. Eliana’s original songs, arranged for string quartet by the acclaimed JUNO Award-winning pianist Jeremy Ledbetter, highlight Eliana's roots, merging Venezuelan tradition with contemporary flair. The quartet’s lush, intricate arrangements complement Eliana’s dynamic vocal range, creating a soundscape that feels timeless and groundbreaking.

Some of Toronto's most talented and versatile classical and jazz musicians, including Jessica Deutsch (violin), Praise Lam (violin), Clara NguyenTran (viola) and Lydia Munchinsky (cello), form the Angel Falls String Quartet. This ensemble showcases their masterful musicianship, offering a passionate and heartfelt celebration of Eliana's cultural heritage.

Eliana Cuevas and the Angel Falls String Quartet take you on a journey through the rich sounds of Venezuelan tradition, reimagined through the lens of string arrangements and modern jazz influences. Their music is a tribute to the beauty of cultural fusion and the enduring power of music.

ELIANA CUEVAS ENSEMBLE

The Eliana Cuevas Ensemble is the core touring project of Venezuelan-Canadian vocalist and composer Eliana Cuevas, presenting her original music through a dynamic small-group format that blends Venezuelan folk traditions with jazz, Latin, and global influences. Anchored by Cuevas’ expressive voice and songwriting, the ensemble delivers a vibrant and personal performance experience that balances rhythmic sophistication with emotional immediacy.

At the centre of the ensemble is Cuevas’ distinctive compositional voice—one that draws from Afro-Venezuelan rhythms, folkloric forms, and contemporary jazz language, shaped through years of international touring and collaboration with leading artists across multiple genres. The result is a sound that navigates between groove-driven interplay, lyrical storytelling, and exploratory improvisation, offering audiences a richly textured musical journey.

The ensemble typically features a rotating cast of some of Canada’s most versatile musicians, allowing the project to expand or contract in size and instrumentation while maintaining a clear artistic identity. This adaptability reflects Cuevas’ wide-ranging musical palette and her ability to weave diverse influences into a cohesive and compelling sonic landscape.

Repertoire includes original compositions spanning her acclaimed discography, alongside reimagined traditional Venezuelan material, all interpreted through a contemporary lens. Themes of identity, migration, memory, and cultural resilience shape the music, giving the ensemble’s performances both narrative depth and broad emotional resonance.

Whether presented in intimate venues or on international festival stages, the Eliana Cuevas Ensemble captures the essence of her artistry: a bold synthesis of tradition and innovation, delivered with warmth, precision, and a powerful sense of cultural storytelling.

ELIANA CUEVAS & JEREMY LEDBETTER

This duo project reveals the deeply personal and musically rich collaboration between Eliana Cuevas and Jeremy Ledbetter, offering a soulful, acoustic interpretation of Latin American music with a focus on Venezuelan folkloric repertoire. By stripping the music to its essentials, the duo foregrounds their musical connection through jazz-infused arrangements, original compositions, and reimagined traditional songs.

Their performances are playful, adventurous, and spontaneous, moving between rhythmic vitality and quiet introspection with ease. In this setting, Cuevas’ voice takes centre stage—revealing the expressive range that has captivated audiences worldwide—while Ledbetter transforms the piano into a vast rhythmic and harmonic landscape, at times evoking the sounds of the Venezuelan cuatro or arpa llanera. Together, they create performances that feel immediate, immersive, and deeply human.

Both artists are widely recognized within the Canadian musical landscape for the exceptional quality of their work, as bandleaders and collaborators with some of the country’s most celebrated performers. In 2025, Ledbetter won the JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year (Group) with his trio for Gravity, while Cuevas was named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians at the 17th Annual TLN Hispanic Canadian Awards.

Having performed together for over 15 years across multiple projects—including Cuevas’ last three albums, which earned two US Independent Music Awards and a Canadian Folk Music Award—this duo distills their long-standing partnership into its most concentrated form, drawing on shared history to create performances that are both technically masterful and emotionally resonant.

ELIANA CUEVAS & AQUILES BÁEZ

This voice-and-guitar project unites Eliana Cuevas and Aquiles Báez in a richly grounded interpretation of Venezuelan musical traditions. Built around a stripped-down acoustic format, the project revisits beloved repertoire with warmth, virtuosity, and expressive immediacy, allowing the core elements of the music—rhythm, melody, and narrative—to emerge with striking clarity.

The program functions as both a celebration and preservation of Venezuela’s vibrant and often underrepresented musical heritage. Drawing from traditional forms and iconic songs spanning several decades, Cuevas and Báez bring renewed vitality to this repertoire through nuanced interpretation and finely detailed phrasing. Their performances traverse a wide emotional spectrum—joyful, reflective, witty, and deeply moving—inviting audiences into the cultural pulse of this music.

The duo’s connection is rooted in a shared musical language and a profound mutual respect developed over years of collaboration. Báez’s guitar work is virtuosic yet deeply lyrical, balancing rhythmic propulsion with harmonic colour, while Cuevas’ voice brings narrative sensitivity and expressive nuance. Together, they create a fluid musical exchange where spontaneity and precision coexist, transforming both traditional material and original compositions into something immediate and alive.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in contemporary Venezuelan music, Aquiles Báez was a guitarist, composer, and cultural ambassador whose impact spans generations. His longstanding artistic relationship with Cuevas—born from early admiration and deepened through years of collaboration—finds its most distilled expression in this project: a personal and resonant dialogue that honours tradition while carrying it forward into the present.

ELIANA CUEVAS & JORGE GLEM

This duo project pairs Eliana Cuevas with Jorge Glem in a striking exploration of Venezuelan musical traditions through the elemental combination of voice and cuatro. Reduced to its purest form, the music reveals a vivid interplay of rhythm, melody, and expression, where every detail—each breath, each plucked note—carries heightened meaning and presence.

Framed as a musical reflection on memory, identity, and cultural continuity, the project draws from traditional repertoire and deeply personal material. Cuevas and Glem shape performances that feel both intimate and far-reaching, evoking the atmosphere of Venezuelan family gatherings where music is woven into daily life and shared across generations. The result is a sound that feels rooted in tradition while alive with contemporary energy.

The musical dialogue between the two artists is exceptional. Glem—widely regarded as the leading cuatro player of his generation—expands the instrument’s role into a complete expressive language, seamlessly blending rhythm, harmony, and melody. Cuevas meets him with equal depth, bringing lyrical clarity, storytelling, and emotional nuance to the forefront. Together, they create a dynamic and responsive interplay that is spontaneous, refined, and deeply connected.