Hobbies

I play saxophone, flute and the recorder. Jazz, latin jazz , classical music (in particular impressionism and Russian composers from The Five) and 80's pop/rock music are my favorite genres. As originally from the Northern Caribbean region of Colombia (which shares a similar cultural background with Panama, Venezuela and the Spanish-speaking islands of the Caribbean such as Puerto Rico, Cuba and Dominican Republic), I grew up listening to cumbia (both traditional and modern), porros, fandangos, vallenato, salsa and merengue, which are genres that I also like to listen.

  • I currently play tenor sax with the Columbus Community Orchestra.
  • When I lived in NM, I was member of the NNMC Community Big Band, lead by Dan Borton (2014) and Matt Leder (2013). Playing with this big band was a tremendous experience!! I was fortunate also to have Dan and Matt as improvisation teachers while I was there. We played once with NEA Jazz Master Jason Marsalis on a concert. In the video below I'm playing the lead on Gentle Rain.
  • When I was an undergraduate student at Universidad del Norte, I was part of of Ethnia Latin & Jazz, an extracurricular group open to all UniNorte students, but at that time it had as majority Engineering students. Very fortunate to have these guys as my friends, with most of us having the opportunity to pursue graduate school in USA and Europe. Here we are still playing together in 2005.

When we played this concert back in 2005, Ethnia Latin & Jazz'players were:

  • Eduardo "Goyo" Valencia (Alto sax and Director).
  • Oskar Lara, Ph. D. (Piano) who produces his own music and also works as a Data Scientist for IBM.
  • Rodney Gomez, M.S. (Congas and percussion) who works for Apple.
  • Leopoldo Calderon M.S. (Bass guitar) who is a jazz player and guitar professor at Uninorte.
  • Macaro Serje (Drums) who is a mechanical engineer in Colombia.
  • Kabir Suescun (Guitar) who is a mechanical engineer in Colombia, an expert in Karate Shotokan and plays rock in Colombia.
  • Katherine Lugo M.S. (Oboe) who is an entrepreneur.
  • Javier Brujes M.S. (Clarinet) currently on his Ph.D. at Mittuniversitetet (Sweden).
  • Jose David Posada, Ph.D. (Trumpet) currently a Senior Clinical Researcher at Stanford.
  • Alfredo J. Perez, Ph. D. (tenor sax and flute), this is me :) .