ORMACO- Ohio Regional, Music, Arts and Cultural Outreach

Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) and the Akron-Summit County Public Library bring you Larry and Joe as the culminating concert in the Spring 2026 World Tour of Music residency on Sunday, March 22, 2026, at 2:00 pm at 60 South High Street, Akron, OH 44326.
Larry and Joe 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 harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, and upright bass. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.
The program is free. For more information call 419-853-6016.

#### About the Musicians

Larry Bellorín grew up in Punta de Mata in the state of Monagas, Venezuela. His mother, a poor farm worker, raised him. By age six, he became a shoe shiner and built a faithful clientele by singing as he polished, taking requests for the popular Vallenatos of the day. He eventually caught the attention of a local music educator who invited him to study at the city’s premiere music school.
Larry’s first instrument was the cuatro, a 4-string guitar with Spanish roots central to the Venezuelan identity and typically the first instrument a folk musician is taught there. Cuatristas strum out complex polyrhythms at dizzying speeds as accompaniment for vocalists and harpists. Larry quickly excelled and by age 11 was supporting himself through music alone. He soon became proficient on guitar, electric bass, mandolin and maracas as well. By age 13, he was well-versed in the folk music of his region (valse, pasaje, joropo, música oriental) and was honored as first cuatrista for the local Casa de Cultura.
After filling in on cuatro for a friend on a gig at a local pizzeria, Larry met an authentic llanera harpist named Urbino Ruiz, who immediately took him under his wing as an apprentice. After only a month of tutelage, Larry had a repertoire of 40 songs. “I played so much, I would wake up hunched over my harp,” he recalls.
In 1999, Urbano invited Larry to perform with him alongside Venezuelan cultural treasure Renaldo Armas at the Punta de Mata’s Parque Ferial. After playing, Armas, a GRAMMY winner and the country’s most well-known champion of Llanera music, introduced him to the crowd of more than 8,000 people as “El maestro Larry Bellorín.” From that point forward, Larry was respected as such.
Larry went on to accompany countless Venezuelan musical luminaries including Cristina Maica, Teo Galindez, and Rumi Olivo. While touring the country as a performer, he and his wife opened Casa Vieja, a school dedicated to teaching Música Llanera. In three years, he taught nearly five hundred students and launched Monagas’ first Musicá Llanera festival.
Inspired by the success of Gustavo Dudamel’s orchestral program El Sistema, the state-funded parallel folk program Alma Llanera aimed to enrich the lives of and promote cultural heritage to children through Venezuela’s folk music. Larry taught harp, cuatro, and vocals to countless students.
In 2012 Venezuela began to collapse, and it became impossible to maintain a music school. Poverty and violence reached unprecedented extremes, and new political realities threatened Larry and his family’s lives. He decided to go to the United States in search of work and asylum for his family. He arrived with only thirty dollars and slept on the floor of an unfurnished room while doing construction day labor. His wife and young daughter eventually joined him. Having faced political persecution, they were able to open a case for asylum. Larry has endured wage theft and several work site injuries but continues to look to the future with hope.
Prior to the pandemic, Larry was beginning to find work as a musician in North Carolina, playing bass in Salsa bands and booking his own Venezuelan folk group across the state. But the pandemic’s restrictions on social gatherings ended those opportunities, and Larry returned to full-time construction work.
Joe Troop is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The founder of GRAMMY-nominated string band Che Apalache, Joe’s music is deeply inspired by his decade living in Buenos Aires and traveling throughout Latin America. When the pandemic unexpectedly landed him back in North Carolina, he spent 2020 learning direct action from stalwart organizers. In 2021, he channeled that energy into his homecoming album “Borrowed Time”. The record was co-produced with Jason Richmond (The Avett Brothers, Branford Marsalis) and features luminaries like Béla Fleck (who produced Che Apalache’s GRAMMY-nominated album), Abigail Washburn, Tim O’Brien and Charlie Hunter, but the visceral songwriting and fine-crafted instrumentals speak for themselves. Joe’s music reflects both his time spent living abroad as well as his upbringing in the North Carolina Piedmont. Now based in Durham, he leads various ensembles which play his original music.

The critically acclaimed bestselling novel comes to “thrilling, dazzling” life (Time Out New York) in a unique, spectacle-filled new musical with “one of the more remarkable ensembles ever seen on Broadway” (New York Daily News)! Hailed as a Critic’s Pick, The New York Times calls it “stunning, emotional and gorgeously imaginative.”
After losing what matters most, a young man jumps a moving train unsure of where the road will take him and finds a new home with the remarkable crew of a traveling circus, and a life—and love—beyond his wildest dreams. Seen through the eyes of his older self, his adventure becomes a poignant reminder that if you choose the ride, life can begin again at any age.
Tony Award-nominated director Jessica Stone’s “huge, heart-filling” production (The New York Times) features a book by three-time Tony nominee Rick Elice adapted from Sara Gruen’s novel, and a soaring score by the acclaimed PigPen Theatre Co.
Hop on the bus at Buehler’s River Styx at 5:00 pm, enjoy a catered meal, beverages (wine, water, soft drinks), homemade cookies, chocolates, a trivia quiz and more! Book at ormaco.org or call 419-853-6016. Seating is limited, so book now to avoid disappointment. ORMACO bus trips sell out quickly.
Party Bus + Orchestra: $140.00
Party Bus + Balcony: $120.00
Orchestra Only: $85.00
Balcony Only: $60.00

Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) and the Wadsworth Public Library continue Live at the Library with jazz vocalist and guitarist Joe Rangel on Sunday, April 12, 2026, at 2 pm at the Wadsworth Public Library, 132 Broad Street, Wadsworth, OH 44281.
Joe will showcase music performed by Bing Crosby. Not only will he sing, but he will accompany himself on a seven-stringed guitar.
This program is free. Seating at programs is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 419-853-6016.
About the Musician
Joe Rangel is a jazz vocalist who brings the unique artistry of a seven-stringed guitar to accompany himself. Rangel has performed for years regionally and nationally as both a sideman and bandleader in genres that range from R&B to jazz, pop, and Latin. A Cleveland native, Joe has studied jazz in the acclaimed music program at Tri-C Metro and graduated with a bachelor’s in music performance from Cleveland State University (with an emphasis in jazz guitar).

Adapted from S.E Hinton’s seminal novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic film, this thrilling new Broadway musical features a book by Adam Rapp with Justin Levine music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) and Justin Levine, music supervision, orchestration, and arrangements by Justin Levine, choreography by Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman and direction by Tony Award® winner Dayna Taymor, The New York Post calls it “The Best New Musical of the Season.”
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1967, Ponyboy Curtis, his best friend Johnny Cade and their Greaser family of ‘outsiders’ battle with their affluent rivals, the Socs. THE OUTSIDERS navigates the complexities of self-discovery as the Greasers dream about who they want to become in a world that may never accept them. With a dynamic original score, THE OUTSIDERS is a story of friendship, family, belonging…and the realization that there is still “lots of good in the world.”
Hop on the bus at Buehler’s River Styx at 5:00 pm, enjoy a catered meal, beverages (wine, water, soft drinks), homemade cookies, chocolates, a trivia quiz and more! Book at ormaco.org or call 419-853-6016. Seating is limited, so book now to avoid disappointment. ORMACO bus trips sell out quickly.
Party Bus + Orchestra: $140.00
Party Bus + Balcony: $120.00
Orchestra Only: $85.00
Balcony Only: $60.00