Alirio Díaz
Venezuelan guitarist and composer Alirio Díaz was born in Caserio La Candelaria on 12 November 1923, showing great interest in music from early childhood, and first learning guitar from his uncle. He studied with Raul Borges at the Escuela Superior de Musica José Ángel Lamas in Caracas and then in Madrid with Regino Sainz de la Maza and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena, Italy, with Andrés Segovia.
Rodrigo's Invocación y Danza (1961) for solo guitar became the first of many compositions dedicated to Alirio Díaz, who performed baroque music and works by modern Latin American composers all over the world. He also collected and researched Venezuelan folk songs, writing a book titled Music in the life and struggle of the Venezuelan people, and also his autobiography, On seeing the smoke from the native village.
Alirio Díaz died in Rome on 5 July 2016, aged ninety-two.