Juan Andrés Ospina has become one of the most active Colombian musicians of his generation in the international scene. His exceptional multi-faceted career has led him to become an internationally in demand producer, arranger, pianist and composer, orbiting primarily between New York City, Europe and his native Colombia.
Among his most recent work as a producer, arranger and pianist is Portuguese singer Luisa Sobral’s cd “The Cherry on my Cake” (Universal Music, 2011), which received a Golden Disk Award in Portugal at only 6 months of its release. Currently he is finishing the production of another internationally acclaimed jazz singer from Portugal, Sofia Ribeiro, with whom he performed in prestigious jazz festivals such as Jazz Espoo (Espoo, Finland), Silesian Jazz Festival (Katowice, Poland), Jazz a la calle (Mercedes, Uruguay) and important jazz clubs like Jazz Station (Brussels, Belgium) and Jamboree (Barcelona, Spain). He has also recorded and toured with international artists such as Colombian singer/songwriter Marta Gómez, Colombian super pop star Fonseca, and Swiss jazz vocalist Sylvie Bourban, and worked as an arranger for the 2007 Latin Grammys Ceremony held in Las Vegas (US).
In 2010, Juan was invited to play at a tribute to Mercedes Sosa, a concert that took place at the historical Lincoln Center Theatre in New York City, and included the voices of legendary artists such as Joan Baez, Leon Gieco and Piero among many others. The same year he was invited to arrange and conduct the ‘Bogotá Big Band’ at the 15th anniversary of the festival ‘Jazz al Parque’ (Bogotá, Colombia), along with a selected group of internationally acclaimed Colombian musicians such as Edmar Castañeda, Lucia Pulido and Antonio Arnedo. The concert was broadcast nationally and registered on DVD.
Juan’s Big Band music has also been performed and included in the active repertoire of internationally acclaimed such as the UMO Jazz Orchestra (Finland), the Yukito Big Band (Japan), and the Greg Hopkins Big Band (Boston, MA). Some of his music for smaller ensembles has been acquired by Colleges like the North Texas University, Berklee College of Music and NEC (New England Conservatory), which have included some of his music for smaller ensembles for educational purposes.
His debut album as a leader “BBB: Barcelona, Bogotá, Boston” (Armored Records, 2009) was recorded in Boston with a selected fine group of emergent jazz musicians in New York. The Cd has been presented in Spain, Colombia and the US, and some of its compositions have been requested by universities such as NEC (New England Conservatory), Berklee College of Music, North Texas University and the Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia) for educational purposes.
Juan Andrés started his musical studies at the Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá), and short time after he moved to Barcelona (Spain), where he continued his classical and jazz studies at the Conservatoire and the Taller de Musics. After five years of studying and performing at the most important clubs in the city he graduated as pianist and arranger and was selected by the Taller de Musics to represent the school at the 2004 14th IASJ Annual Meeting held in Freiburg (Germany). He returned to Bogotá to teach at the Universidad de Los Andes and Universidad Incca, and after a year he received a scholarship from Berklee of Music, where he moved in September 2005.
At Berklee he studied with Danilo Perez, Maria Schneider, Greg Hopkins and Dave Samuels amongst many others, and received the “Jazz Performance Award” for outstanding performance from the Piano Department and the “Herb Pomeroy Award” for outstanding composition and arrangements. He graduated with honors (Summa Cum Laude) with a degree in Jazz Composition in December 2007, and moved to New York City.
