Tito Lara

Tito Lara ( Agustín Enrique Lara Olivencia ; born December 23, 1932 in Río Piedras , † June 23, 1987 in Houston ) was a Puerto Rican singer and actor.

From 1947 Lara studied trumpet, guitar and singing with Alfredo Medina at the Conservatory of San Juan. In the following year he founded an orchestra with fellow students, with which he also appeared as a singer. In 1949 he founded with Miguelito Alcaide and Nito Bonilla , who was soon replaced by Pedro Barríos , the Trío Los Líricos, which appeared frequently in Rafael Quiñone 's Vidal's radio show Tribuna del Arte . The musician and impresario Ardín Delgado brought the trio to his newly founded label Discos Mardi and expanded it with María Esther Ortiz as a female voice to form a quartet that went on a concert tour to New York in 1952. In addition, Lara studied at the humanities faculty of the University of Puerto Rico and honored their choir led by Augusto Rodríguez Amador .

From 1953 Lara began a career as a solo singer and had first successes with the Bolero Sollozo by Tito Henríquez and the ballad Orchids in the Moolight by Vincenz Youmans and Jimmy Rivera . From 1955 onwards he had appeared for ten years in the Fiesta musical del mediodía block on WKAQ Radio El Mundo as part of the Sultana Festival with the Lod Hispanos quartet . Also from 1955 he presented the show El Show Coca Cola at Telemundo with Ida Claudio and the pianist José Raúl Ramírez, which ran until 1960. From 1960 to 1964 he hosted the El show Ford with Los Hispanos and Sonia Noemi González . With Los Hispanos he also had appearances in the USA, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela and Chile.

From 1965 he was also frequently seen in Paquito Cordero's The show of 12 , where he played as an orchestral musician in the orchestra directed by Rafael Elvira . With María Esther Ortiz he formed the duo Los Dos from 1969 to 1972 . At the same time he completed his musical training at the Conservatory of San Juan with Henry Novak and received his bachelor's degree in music in 1970.

In addition to his solo activity, Lara belonged to two vocal groups in the 1970s. One was Allegro 72 a sextet with Vilma Colón , Luis Antonio Cosme , Beltrán Rojas , Carmen Caldas and Gloria Caldas , the 1973 in Carnegie Hall occurred and with titles like Me voy a morder la lengua , Gente and the ballad Tú también became popular . The second was Rina de Toledo's Quinteto Lírico (with founding members Clarissa Chapuseaux , Odalie Beauchamp , Wildo Fuentes and Tony Abreu , who was also joined by Marilyn Pupo ).

A heart disease complicated by diabetes forced him to limit his artistic activity from 1978 onwards. In 1979 he underwent open heart surgery. After surviving this, he professed his Christian faith and joined the Iglesia Evangélica Misericordia . In 1985 he participated in various functions at the Concierto de Navidad at the Centro de Bellas Artes in San Juan. In 1986 he gave concerts of Christian music at the Brooklyn Center For Performing Arts and the Hostos Center of Culture en Bronx in New York. In the same year, as a homage to Miguelito Alcaide , Los Cuatro Ases was his last album. After a relapse in health, he was admitted to the West Houston Medical Center in Houston in March 1987 , where he died three months later.

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personal data
SURNAME	Lara, Tito
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lara Olivencia, Agustín Enrique
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Puerto Rican singer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH	December 23, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH	Río Piedras
DATE OF DEATH	June 23, 1987
Place of death	Houston