Currently living in between New York and Bogotá (Colombia), Juan Andrés Ospina is one of the most active and prominent exponents of a very outstanding generation of Colombian musicians. His wide range of musical projects make him hard to define: he might as well be producing and arranging, conducting his big band, touring as a sideman pianist, composing for film, or creating comedy content for the internet.
His latest album, Juan Andrés Ospina Big Band’s “Tramontana” (2018), features 26 musicians from 10 different countries, and among them is the 14-times Grammy awarded saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera. The album’s realization followed a successful, inventive Kickstarter campaign, which raised 35,000 dollars through the support of 600 backers from all over the world. For the album’s release, Juan was invited to conduct and perform with the legendary WDR Big Band (Cologne, Germany) and the TipToe Big Band (Odense, Denmark). He has performed with his own big band in multiple occasions at the prestigious “Dizzy‘s Coca-Cola” (part of Jazz at Lincoln Center) in New York City, sharing stage with Paquito D’Rivera, Sofia Ribeiro, Sofia Rei and Magda Giannikou amongst many others.
During summer 2019, Ospina was invited to be part of the faculty at Omega’s retreat “Circle Songs”, led by the legendary vocalist Bobby McFerrin and visionary Linda Goldstein; where he worked as vocal improviser and teacher along with a group of great singers from all over the world. He also recently wrote arrangements for the great vocalist Lisa Fischer (US), and the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands).
His debut album as a leader BBB: Barcelona, Bogotá, Boston (Armored Records, 2009) was recorded in Boston with a selected fine group of emergent jazz musicians in New York, and the album was referred by the prestigious All About Jazz magazine as one of the “best jazz albums of the year”.
In the past years, Juan Ospina has produced, arranged and recorded the piano in several international awarded albums. Among them is Colombian singer Marta Gómez’ Este instante (2015), which won a Latin Grammy and received two Latin Grammy nominations; Portuguese singer Sofia Ribeiro’s Ar (2012), which won the “Revelation” prize by the prestigious jazz French magazine Jazzman; and Portuguese singer Luisa Sobral’s debut Cd The Cherry on my Cake (2011) which won a Golden and Platinum award, and reached the top charts in many European countries shortly after its release. In 2014 he wrote an arrangement for Colombian singer Fonseca’s Latin Grammy DVD Fonseca Sinfónico, which won a Latin Grammy for “Best pop vocal album”, and in 2007 he worked as arranger for the Latin Grammys Live Achievement Awards Ceremony.
Juan Ospina has toured widely as musical director of Portuguese singer Sofia Ribeiro’s group, as well as with Marta Gómez, Sylvie Bourban (for whom he arranged her last four albums), Fonseca, and New York based and multi awarded band Banda Magda. He has performed in prestigious theatres such as the Lincoln Center (New York) and the Carnegie Hall (New York), as well as in important jazz festivals in Europe, Latin America and Japan. 14-times Grammy Awarded Paquito D’Rivera Quintet has performed some of his original compositions in important venues such as New York’s Blue Note and the Carnegie Hall, and his Big Band compositions have been performed by the UMO Jazz Orchestra (Finland), the Yukimori Big Band (Japan), the Greg Hopkins Big Band (Boston) and the Bogotá Big Band (Colombia). The music of his album BBB has been requested for educational purposes by the prestigious Berklee College of Music (Boston), the NEC (New England Conservatory) and the UNT (University of North Texas) and the Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia).
He recently composed the music for the French/Colombian film “Kairós”, directed by Colombian director Nicolás Buenaventura. The film will be premiered during the Fall 2019.
Parallel to his work as a producer, pianist and arranger, he leads the comedy/musical duo “Inténtalo Carito” with his brother Nicolás Ospina. Together they composed the famous song “Qué difícil es hablar el español”, which to date has more than 20 million views in their Youtube Channel, and their fan base grows every day reaching millions of people from different countries around the globe. The duo has gathered the attention of the important around the globe, and together they have performed in Australia, Spain, the US and Colombia.
Juan Andrés started his musical studies at the Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá), and short time after he moved to Barcelona (Spain), where he continued his classical and jazz studies at the Escola D’Angel Soler and the Taller de Musics. In the year 2005 he receives a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2007. At Berklee he studied with musicians such as Danilo Pérez, Maria Schneider, Greg Hopkins and Dave Samuels among many others, and he was a recipient of the Jazz Herb Pomeroy Award and the Herb Pomeroy Award. He moved to New York City in 2009.
