22.02. – Happy Birthday !!! Andres Fonseca Alfonso, born in Bogota, Colombia has been playing music since he was 8 years old. He started with piano lessons and soon after fell in love with percussion instruments, particularly Drumset.
After studying in different schools and private music lessons, Andres went on to study professionally in the music program at Universidad Sergio Arboleda, where he studied jazz & latin jazz drumset performance, as well as Colombian percussion, composition and arranging.
In 2009, Andres was accepted at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Ever since his arrival, he dove into scene, playing and leading different projects. Making good use of his versatility as a musician, Andrés has collaborated with important musical projects. The Colombian folkloric band La Babilla, was one of the first where he had the chance to play traditional Colombian percussion in different local festivals such as the 5to Encuentro Folklorico Latinoamericano, in Lynn, MA. The Boston Music Conference, in Boston and the New Bostonian Community Day, where the band received recognition from former Mayor of Boston Thomas M. Menino. Soon after hi arrival in Boston, Andres had the idea to start and lead a student club called, Colombianos @ Berklee. With this club they did several events around the College raising awareness about Colombian Culture, helping to demystify the old stigma of drug traffic and war that has surrounded his home country. Because of these events the club received support and grants from Berklee, support from the Colombian consulate in Boston as well as the Colombian student organizations in Harvard and MIT. This club is still active, currently led by new Colombian students at Berklee. As an arranger and composer, Andrés wrote original music for the therapeutic video called “Soltar Para Volar”, written by the renowned psychologist and author Dr. Gloria Sierra published by San Pablo publishing. Soltar Para Volar is a book and a video of 10 psychological therapies to re-establish emotional orders. Furthermore in 2011 he wrote and performed arrangements of traditional Colombian Music for the Boston Latinamerican Orchestra, a chamber orchestra focused on performing traditional music in a “classical setting”, conducted by Andres Lopera.
Due to his innate ability as a leader and his enthusiasm for working in community, Andres formed and led the band Unlimited Perception. A community of composers and performers that has already recorded 2 albums and that has participated in renowned festivals such as Detroit International Jazz Festival (2013) y el Boston Arts Festival (2012). Apart from that, Andres has still worked as a drummer and a sideman, since his arrival at Boston he has recorded 8 albums raging from pop/rock singer songwriters to arabic/jazz fusion band with the Aliya Cycon Project and jazz/colombian llanera music with the Nicolas Castaneda Group, amongst others.
Since his arrival at Boston, Andres has also collaborated with colombian artists that tour the US, like Maria Mulata, on her US tour in 2013 and Antonio Arnedo, when he performed at Berklee College of Music in 2012.
Currently, graduated with honors from Berklee with a dual major in Jazz Drumset Performance and Contemporary Writing and Production; Andres is getting ready to record his first solo album, that plans to release in 2016. He also teaches drumset and piano at a local music school and at his home studio, while actively playing drumset and percussion on different projects with shows on the Boston area and NYC, all while leading the band Unlimited Perception. We are certain that we will keep hearing from this extrodinary colombian artist in the future as well as watching his career shine not only in the US, but on the whole world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoC3tpn69fQ
