Anthony Ocaña
Composer/guitarist with a personal voice where layers of different genres – classical, contemporary, minimal, pop, progressive rock, Caribbean, Latin American and jazz - are interwoven in a unique, unclassifiable style.
He is born in the Dominican Republic on March 7th, 1980, is educated in the island, the USA and Spain, then becomes a Spanish citizen in 2007.
His musical path begins at age 5 when he asks his father for piano lessons; once he starts learning music, he knows he would dedicate his entire life to it. At age 14 he begins studying classical guitar and enrols in the National Conservatory of Music in Dominican Republic studying with guitarist Ruben Gonzalez. At 18 he receives a scholarship to study composition and guitar at Manhattanville College in New York, where he graduates with honours. At age 19 he invited to be the opening act of jazz pianist and multi-grammy winner Gonzalo Rubalcaba. At this concert is where Ocaña decides to focus his career on performing his original compositions. Few years later he is again invited to be the opening act of Rubalcaba and Egberto Gismonti, one of his biggest musical influences. While living in New York, he works as a composer for the orchestra of Elliot Magaziner (former director of Frank Sinatra's orchestra) and studies with great musicians, such as Benjamin Verdery, Ingram Marshall and Mary Ann Joyce-Walter.
In 2002, Ocaña decides to move to Madrid, where he has been living ever since. Yet, years later his music can be enjoyed on a regular basis in the Spanish National Radio stations and other venues.
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Album Review
- In Trance by Budd Kopman
- In Trance (La Luna o los Ritos del Amor) by Karl Ackermann
March 07, 2014
Jazz Musician of the Day: Anthony Ocaña
March 07, 2012
Jazz Musician of the Day: Anthony Ocaña
March 07, 2011
Jazz Musician of the Day: Anthony Ocaña
March 07, 2010
Jazz Musician of the Day: Anthony Ocaña
March 07, 2009
Jazz Musician of the Day: Anthony Ocaña
December 16, 2008
Anthony has an immense pleasure to perform the music he composes. This is good enough to fulfill the soul of the listener. Congratulations” (Egberto Gismonti 2006)
“Anthony Ocaña…free of prejudice… makes all influences, from top to bottom, his own. (Laura Barrachina “El Ojo Crítico” Spanish National Radio 2015)
“In Trance, an album in which the fusion of influences and styles make you walk through a path where echoes of Animal Collective, Philip Glass, Sufjan Stevens or the folk music of Dominican Republic are present” (Luis J
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