Adina Izarra wrote this for the Venezuelan flutist Luis Julio Toro. The work portrays the street cries of the knife grinder, a Spanish tradition still alive in Venezuela today. Also known to many other Latin-American countries, El Amolador or the Knife Grinder is a street vendor whose job, as the title suggests, is to sharpen dull knives. The vendor usually roams the streets calling out “amolador”, and uses a harmonic flute to announce his services. The work is divided into two parts–El Amolador resembles the call of the knife grinder, while Luvina resembles the sound of the blades on the grindstone.
Performance duration (approx): 9'
