Luca Bentivoglio Músico y Productor
Luca Bentivoglio, with more than 35 years on television, decided to reopen another phase of his career: musical composition. Bentivoglio, musician, and producer, gave details about his new initiative Vientos de Cambio (Winds of Change) during #PRODUPrimetime with Ríchard Izarra.
Extensive Career in Hispanic TV
Bentivoglio made his entrance to the Hispanic TV market as Director of Promotions for channel 47 in New York with Carlos Barba; then he met Rosita Peru, who hired him to work at the SIN network, formerly Univisión. In 1987 he went to Los Angeles to set up his own company, producing shows presenting the Latin world of Hollywood. In 1992 he moved to Miami as part of Telemundo’s team to produce the comedy Sálvese Quien Pueda, he did two movies for the network in Tijuana, and there he was appointed as VP of Programming for Telemundo. After that, he went to Venezuela with Warner Brothers. He also worked with Latino Public Broadcasting, an entity funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting where he spent seven years before working with LATV, the bilingual channel for Hispanic youth launched by Walter Ulloa’s Entravision. Bentivoglio worked there for 11 years, from 2008 to 2019.
Costa Rica
Bentivoglio, who has cultivated music since he was a child, was part of musical bands in Venezuela, and later in Costa Rica, where he studied theater, he reconnected with music and composing music. At that time, he performed in a duet with his friend Jesús Barreto in the song Eres Tú. “That’s a song that was recorded at a concert we did in San Jose in the late ’70s before we came to Los Angeles. We had a good audience, we could fill with 200, 300, or 400 people 4 or 5 nights, we had our fan base. At that time some songs were recorded in concert, some are on YouTube, that work remained, and this was what also helped me revive the music”.
Back to Music
A few years ago he was included on one of these Facebook websites called ‘Costa Rican Rock Pioneers’. “They portray me as a pioneer of Costa Rican rock because I left a legacy with this music, with my friend Jesús and with the songs I composed —I will have composed between 15 and 20 at that time—. I left a legacy and an inspiration for many bands that later dedicated themselves to making rock in Spanish, among which is Hebra, led by my friend Armando Loynaz, who later continued to play over the years. That also encouraged me because I told myself: nobody knows me here (in Los Angeles), nor in Venezuela, because I left when I was very young and I didn’t have time to do anything musically, but in Costa Rica I have followers. So, why don’t I reconnect with the Costa Ricans again, pick up some of the songs, start composing new ones, and create an event in Costa Rica with Armando’s music —who they call Mandy— and with mine? So that is how Vientos de Cambio was born. It all developed exactly one year ago when we met for the first time and decided that we were going to do a show that later went beyond music”.
Vientos de Cambio
“Vientos de Cambio is the website, a musical journey that transcends generations because it is us, the pioneers, and then we have assembled a group of 18 musicians among whom there are people in their 40s, 30s, and 20s; all the generations of musicians and we have included Mandy’s wife, an art curator in Costa Rica, who invited 35 Costa Rican artists to paint inspiring in each of our songs. The painters are our sponsors. And also there is Teletica Canal 7, owned by our dear friend René Picado, who immediately said that he wanted to contribute to marketing. Jorge Garro is one of the Teletica executives who is helping me. So we put together this event that is going to have: music, dance, and the paintings that we are going to project and exhibit” he explained.
The Event
Bentivoglio said that the initiative has gained momentum and will now be an event to be held from March 3 to 5. “We got an auditorium with a capacity for 420 people, which belongs to the Humboldt School, who decided to work with us and that will not be charging us the rent of the venue because we were good enough for it to be a co-production with the school. With a lot of expectation, a lot of energy, and, additionally rehearsing the songs for the event, I’ve started to compose again, I’ve learned to handle some software that I didn’t know existed and I now record all my songs at home. I play guitar, bass, I play a little piano, I do the voices. I have already composed about ten new songs this year” he said.
The Human Condition
One of Bentivoglio’s neighbors, who is a music supervisor at Warner Bros and responsible for musicalizing series like Ted Lasso, heard one of Bentivoglio’s songs called La Condición Humana (The Human Condition) and told him: ‘I would use that song for a series’, and that he should consider composing for television or film. “The fact that I ended up doing music for TV series would be a bit like a complete turnaround. But it is possible. But it could be possible. I could consider it, but this does not mean I am advertising for a job as a music composer” he concluded.
View interview here
