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Juan Andrés Ospina

Juan Andrés Ospina is a Colombian composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and multidisciplinary creator whose work moves between large-scale ensemble projects, improvised performance and hybrid music–comedy formats. His artistic practice blends composition, storytelling and spontaneous creation across concert halls, digital media and collaborative contexts.

Ospina has composed extensively for big band and large ensemble, creating project-based orchestras assembled for each performance and musical context. He is also the creator of 12 Esferas, a fully improvised vocal concert built in real time. He created the ensemble Juan Andrés Ospina y la Orquesta Efímera, a large-scale orchestral improvisation project premiered at Barcelona’s La Mercè festival, where the music is created collectively in real time on stage with an ensemble of exceptional musicians. He is currently preparing the release of De paso (2026), a new album of original songs.

As a composer and bandleader, he has released the albums BBB: Barcelona, Bogotá, Boston (2009) and Tramontana (2018), presenting this music at international festivals alongside musicians and ensembles from Colombia, the United States and Spain, as well as appearing as a guest artist with ensembles such as Germany’s WDR Big Band. In parallel, he is a member of the teaching faculty of Circlesongs School, an international vocal improvisation initiative led by Bobby McFerrin and Linda Goldstein.

He created the full vocal arrangement for Karol G’s Mientras Me Curo del Cora, recording and engineering all vocal parts and co-producing the track with Linda Goldstein. The recording received a Latin Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.

Alongside his brother Nicolás Ospina, he is co-creator of the music-comedy duo Inténtalo Carito, known for viral pieces such as Qué difícil es hablar el español, which has reached millions of viewers worldwide.

Ospina has served as pianist, musical director and producer for major artists, performed internationally at venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and collaborated with artists including Bobby McFerrin, Paquito D’Rivera, Michael League, Marta Gómez and Sofia Ribeiro. He graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music and has lived and worked between New York, Barcelona and Bogotá.

Juan Andrés Ospina: Tramontana

Read "Tramontana" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
January 22, 2020

Fa la spola tra New York e Bogotà -la sua città natale— Juan Andrés Ospina, leader di questo bel progetto orchestrale che raccoglie 26 musicisti da dieci diversi Paesi. Ospina non è solo bandleader e orchestratore ma pianista, produttore e autore di musiche da film. Il suo percorso formativo e professionale s'è svolto tra Bogotà e Barcellona dove ha portato avanti studi di musica classica e jazz (un diploma di jazz arranger al Teller de Músics della città ...

Album Review

Juan Andrés Ospina: Tramontana

Read "Tramontana" reviewed by Dr. Judith Schlesinger

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
July 4, 2018

With his debut big band release, Tramontana, Colombian composer/bandleader Juan Andres Ospina has created a truly international project, featuring musicians from ten countries as disparate as Greece, Switzerland, Israel, and Columbia. Tramontana is the gale-force wind that lashes Spain's Costa Brava, clearing the skies for sweeping views of the Catalan mountains and sea. This wind inspired music that evokes a similar power, grandeur, and beauty, while offering a satisfying melodic ride from start to finish. Listeners who studiously ...

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Album Review

Juan Andrés Ospina: BBB (Barcelona Bogota Boston)

Read "BBB (Barcelona Bogota Boston)" reviewed by Lewis J Whittington

by Lewis J Whittington
January 28, 2012

The jazz diary of pianist/composer Juan Andrés Ospina's BBB is an elegant, untethered tour of primary musical colors, with inviting light, angles and shadows. “Todavía No" states the theme with percussionist Austin McMahon's airy drums swinging, with tango punctuations. Saxophonists Ben Roseth and actually Matan Chapnizka dominate with flights of jazz fancy, though it is Ospina's piano that keeps the pulse more grounded. The pianist composed all but one of the tracks, but he is very much part of the ...

“Listeners who studiously avoid all-original CDs need not fear getting mired in any private, self-satisfied noodling; rather, Tramontana features a solid, propulsive coherence, a blend of fire and heart, driven by international rhythms and flair.” Dr. Judith Schlesinger, All About Jazz (USA)

“Juan Andrés Ospina enriches music in incalculable ways. First there is his attractive way with melody, which he enriches with the kind of flirtatious rhythm that makes these melodies impossible to resist falling in love with. Then there is sense of “the delicious”, which, to one’s mind, is that certain something that makes some musicians like “master chefs” who can impart an almost tactile sense to musical harmony; something that makes one not only ‘feel’ their music, but almost “taste” its hidden delights.” Raul Da Gama, World Music Report (USA)

“Tramontana creates such a unique palette of sounds and feelings that I found myself dislodged from the big band rut and feeling like I discovered a new frontier in jazz. It blew me away, like a gale force wind. Use THAT as a pull quote. I dare you.” Marc Phillips, The Vynil Anachronist (USA)

“What’s striking on this disc is the songfulness of Ospina’s writing and the musician’s performances, as well as the unexpected, and in some cases unidentifiable, textures of the arrangements. This isn’t slam-bang big band writing (...) the rhythm section moves along blithely, as if unaware of the complicated re-harmonizations it is being called on to accompany. I’ve not heard anything like it.” Michael Ullman, Arts Fuse (USA)

“From his South American origins, Juan Andrés Ospina has preserved the art of subtle melodies, languid and swirling rhythms. In the New York musical universe, he has cultivated his sense of understanding with a very unique taste. He found musicians at the height of his ambitions to deliver one of the most interesting orchestral jazz records in recent months.” Tierry Giard, Culture Jazz (France)

“Juan Ospina’s irresistible new CD BBB: Barcelona, Bogotá, Boston, is a landmark. It stands with authority as a milestone pointing back and forward (…) It marks without debt the ‘arrival’ of Juan Ospina as a young master already having a uniquely valuable impact on listeners, professional musicians and ambitious artists of all kinds.” Christopher Lyndon, Radio Open Source

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

I have worked as a teacher in three different colleges in Bogotá, Colombia, teaching mainly Jazz Harmony, Ensembles and private piano lessons.

Clinic/Workshop Information

In my clinics I explain how I approach the art of arranging for different ensembles and situations. By decomposing the form and the way to treat each section I go with the students throughout the creative process, sharing with them the different problems and stages of it.