When the Südwestrundfunk commissioned me to write the work 'Ferocious: contorting femininities' to be part of the celebration of the 100 years of the Donaueschinger Musiktage, I wanted to review my feminine lineage by exploring the music of Tolima Grande. In this work I play to contort the rhythmic pattern of the Rajaleña to rehearse other ways of thinking about the feminine. I take out of context the couplets that mock the liberal behavior of women to broaden their melodies, contrast them and expand them. In my quest to better understand the aforementioned dance, I worked closely with Eduardo Caicedo, one of the percussionists of the Nueva Filarmonía Orchestra. Although the work carried out with the ensemble that premiered the work was absolutely majestic [Klangforum Wien, conducted by Bas Wiegers, on October 15, 2021 at the Große Sporthalle of the Realschule Donaueschingen in Donaueschingen (Germany)], when I had the opportunity to working with the Nueva Filarmonía Orchestra, conducted by Ricardo Jaramillo, I was very happy. The result of this magnificent work is reflected in the nomination that the album received at the Latin Grammy Awards for Classical Music in 2024.

​

​

Links: Listen, Video, Making of

It is very significant for me to be part of this album that brings together the work of such magnificent creators, brought together by the wonderful work of the great violinist Juan Carlos Higuita. This project was released with Bogotana Records label and in collaboration with the Women in New Music Festival FMMN. I wrote the work that is part of this album, Suspended Revelations, as a ceremonial chant that is sung in the resonance of a becoming-bell that I wanted to give to the violin through its preparation. This resource is manipulated in the work to make unexpected sounds emerge, as well as modal melodies that link it with a preterit tradition.

​

Links: Listen, Review, See more

In this beautiful album, accordionist Eva Zöllner brings together the voices of fellow Colombian composers in sounds that reflect the fascination for this enigmatic instrument, combined with the amazement of the mark with which the sound of music and popular culture marks us all, intonated with accordion sounds. My work, the Song of the Black Bird, takes elements from “El Mochuelo” by Otto Serge and Rafael Ricardo, at a time when I felt trapped, like the bird in the cage in the vallenato song.

​

​

Links: Listen, Review, Buy

​

​​​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​Working as a composition lecturer for Javeriana University's Music Department has given me countless moments of fulfillment and bliss. One of them was tutoring the master's thesis by Kike Mendoza and Abel Loterstein. Alongside my teacher colleagues Holman Álvarez and Juan Carlos Britto, we decided to come up with a way of materializing our interest in the choral sound in works that would also highlight our individual composition voices. The pieces we ended up writing during the 2020-2021 pandemic reflect our fears, hopes, beliefs on life and death, as well as the need for forgiveness. My piece Ama is included in this recording. It is about the act of loving -no matter what you do, do it lovingly.

​

​

Links: Listen

In 2018, Colombia's Banco de la República commissioned a new string quartet from me, which was premiered and then recorded by Quatuor Diotima. I was honored to have Noche de reyes sin corona included in Diotima’s three-concert series dedicated to the six Bartók quartets, which they had recently recorded for Naïve. The quartet also presented the new piece in Cali (my hometown!) and Armenia. The three-concert series in Bogotá was quite special because at Banco de la República’s request, the quartet performed the other two quartets I had written by that time as part of the series. I guess it was really a Bartók-Noguera cycle, huh?

Links: Article, Watch

​

I joined my friends, composers Ricardo Gallo and Damián Ponce, on the production of this recording. Ricardo had written Chirimías imaginarias for Linos Trio a few years before, so we decided that Damián would write a piece for them as well. I included Elegía errante for viola and Chirimías metálicas for flute, to the project, works that I had written during my PhD. I wrote Latidos de lo oscuro for harp so that we could have three solo pieces for the three members of the ensemble, to go along with the two chamber pieces written by Ricardo and Damián and… voilà!

While I was studying in the United Kingdom, my alma mater, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota started to work on the fourth volume of its recording series dedicated to works written for specific formats by its composition alumni. This volume was going to feature pieces written for string quartet. As soon as I heard about the project, I contacted the university and I proposed the inclusion of Quattuor verba, one of my string quartets. For this recording I got to work with Marcela Zorro, one of Latin America’s most renowned recording engineers dedicated to the recording of classical music and with whom -to this day- I continue to work whenever it is possible.

​

Links: Listen

Sometimes an award-winning piece can come out of unexpected situations. A friend of mine who played the tuba asked me to write a piece for him. I decided to write En luz y sombra, a piece richer in texture that complemented the tuba with a bass clarinet, a double bass and percussion. However, my friend became uninterested in the piece and… he never performed it! I sent the piece to a composition competition organized by the culture bureau of Bogota and… I won! The piece was then included in this recording, which features the pieces that won the competition between 2003 and 2006.