Bio
I received my first music lessons at the local conservatoire in Bogotá, Colombia. Within a year, I was expelled from that noble institution because I failed to follow rules imposed by a teacher of choral harmonization. I was nine years old at the time. A few years later, a second expulsion took place at a different school, this time in Tunja. The list of crimes committed there included playing Pasillos and Bambucos in public when I was supposed to be studying “real music” in treatises by Russian theorists. Other crimes included writing the music for a comedy show.
In retrospect, being expelled from schools in Colombia was a blessing in disguise, and the start of a long journey nurtured by curiosity, effort and opportunities to work with some truly remarkable individuals. After spending a year in the Dominican Republic where I learned to transcribe the complexities of some Caribbean rhythms, I moved to Ottawa, Canada, to study piano with Jean-Paul Sevilla, and conducting with Françoys Bernier. For a number of years, I traveled regularly to Québec to study with duettists Victor Bouchard and Renée Morisset. Thanks to their generosity, I found a lifelong purpose: to study the repertoire for piano four-hands and keep the art of duet performing alive.
In 1995, I was invited by the Japanese Ministry of Education to take part in a research project at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music 東京藝術大学。Gradually, I became interested in studying the processes of learning music and how people learn foreign languages. For that purpose, I went back to graduate school to study Second Language Acquisition and teaching (TESOL). At Columbia University, I met Christine Pearson Casanave, who invited me to co-author the book, Respite for Teachers (University of Michigan Press, 2007).
In 2012, I was invited to write music for the celebrated Tsunami Violin project. I then moved to the northern part of Japan. In 2015, I was presented with a truly wonderful opportunity and a challenge: to edit a book of readings introducing the Liberal Arts to our students: Introducing the Liberal Arts (Akita International University Press, 2016).
After almost three decades in this country, after reconstructing myself many times in several cultures and languages, after working professionally in two disciplines, I am finally comfortable merging knowledge and art forms to promote what I believe to be at the core of a liberal arts education: The value of engaging in learning for its own sake. This is the legacy that I hope to pass on to my students.