As the youngest of a large and musical family, I’ve been listening to music since before I was born. My mom used to tell me that if my dad didn’t play certain records when I requested them—by singing and babbling from the cradle—I would cry. My family also played a lot of Colombian folk music, with frequent jams at home featuring my dad on saxophone and my siblings on piano and other instruments. I started learning on our old Rachals piano at age 5.
At age 9 or 10, my sister played me a record by Colombian composer Blas Emilio Atehortúa. Hearing Colombian music that wasn’t the traditional pasillos and bambucos I knew was a revelation—I understood for the first time that classical music could also be composed by Colombians. That’s when I realized I wanted to compose. Performing was rewarding, but I wanted to invent music, to imagine entire worlds with all their details and intricacies that others could experience through listening.
I was part of the first generation of composers graduating from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, studying composition with Guillermo Gaviria and piano with Radostina Petkova. I then earned my master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying with Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Joel Hoffman, and my doctorate at Cornell University with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra.
Recording of Música Muisca for Chamber Orchestra: Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Recording of Red Rock for Orchestra: Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, conductor
Recording of Espíritu de Pájaro for Orchestra: Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, Juan Felipe Molano, conductor