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Julio A. Santillan

"Santillán meld styles from down south into a fresh distinctly jazz sound." -Time Out New York

About Me

Julio Santillán is a composer and guitarist from Tucumán, Argentina. His compositions combine elements from his home land folk music, jazz improvisation and classical music.

He has studied classical guitar at Instituto Superior de Música (Argentina) under the direction of maestro Pablo González Jasey. He graduated summa cum laude with a dual major in Classical Composition and Contemporary Writing and Production from Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA). He was a faculty member at Manhattan College from 2004 until 2009 (New York) and Escola de Musica Diesi from 2009 until 2012 (Barcelona).

Mr. Santillán received the following awards: Kunstgegen Foundation 2007 Music for Modern Dance Performance Competition, 2004 Van Lier Fellowship, ASACPlus, Louis Armstrong Jazz, the Arif Mardin and the Contemporary Writing and Production Achievement.

As a composer/arranger he has produced music for documentary films, theater, recordings and live performances for artists around the world. As a performer he has given concerts and workshops in Argentina, Colombia, Finland, Greece, Canada, Spain, Italy, Romania, Belgium, Germany, France, Czech Republic and in the US.

Julio Santillán has recorded over 40 CDs, including a play-along CD for “The Latin Bass Book” (Sher Music, by Oscar Stagnaro), two albums with the Pablo Ablanedo Octet (Freshsound records), four CD with Marta Gómez (BigSur records / Chesky Records / Putumayo Records)- one of which was chosen among the best 10 records of 2003 by the Boston Globe- and one with tango diva Katie Viqueira (Freshsound records)- Independent Music Award winner, 2005 best World Music Album.

Julio Santillán plays solo and leads several ensembles. He and his groups have been featured in prestigious venues and festivals such as “Blue Note Jazz Club” (New York), ”Festival Guitarras del Mundo” (Argentina) and “George Enescu Festival” (Romania). He has released six CDs as a leader and has published two books with studies for guitar.

My Jazz Story

JASS = me!* *Julio Argentino Santillan Stagnetto