Juan Garcia-Herreros, also known as "The Snow Owl", is a Colombian bassist who plays a custom six-string electric contrabass guitar.

History

Juan Garcia-Herreros was born in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, Colombia. His first musical studies began with flute at the age 9 after moving to New York City with his family. Once he completed middle school his family relocated once again to

Dunedin, Florida Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from ''Dùn Èideann'', the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Dunedin is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area and is ...

where he discovered the electric bass. There he also continued learning music at this time. Due to the fact that his family was unable to afford private lessons his passion for learning fueled him to become a self-taught musician, where he would discover the 6-string bass he is known so well for today. Juan was 16 when he began to teach

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

performance at

Dunedin High School Dunedin High School is a high school in Dunedin, Florida, United States. It is operated by the Pinellas County School Board. The school mascot is Freddie the Falcon. The official school colors are red and white, though red and black have become ...

in Florida. His high-school band teacher encouraged him to also study

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

so that he could be a part of the symphonic band in school. He auditioned and became proficient enough to perform with the

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...

Symphony at 17 years of age. At age 30, he was selected by a jury to become part of the faculty for the Jazz Institute of the

Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, also known as Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG) is an Austrian university. Its roots can be traced back to the music school of the '' Akademischer Musikverein'' founded in 1816, making it the oldest u ...

. He was the first Colombian to be honored with such an academic position in Austria. He left the Jazz Institute in the fall of 2012 due to a very busy touring schedule. At age 37, he was nominated for a

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album, for his third CD release entitled "Normas".

Awards and honors

* 2006 Best Jazz Artist award, Jazz First, a cooperation between ''Jazzeit'' magazine, Quinton Records, and Erste Bank. * ''Snow Owl'', ''Quartet'' selected Critic's Choice in Germany by

Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...

in 2006 * November 2008 – Hans Koller Preis CD of the Year for Martin Reiter's ''ALMA''. The CD features Juan Garcia-Herreros on "Pra Frederic". * February 2009 Selected Projekt X-Change Ambassador to represent Colombia * 2010 ''Art of Contrabass Guitar'', Best Traditional Latin Jazz Album in America by ''O's Jazz'' newsletter. * 2011 Austrian World Music Prize recipient with Mamadou Diabate's Percussion Mania. * 2013 ''Art of Contrabass Guitar'' selected by ''Bass Musician'' magazine as one of the most 21 influential Latin Jazz CDs of the decade. * 2014 Latin Grammy Nomination, Best Latin Jazz Album, ''Normas'' * 2016 Global Music Awards Gold Medalist, World Jazz, ''The Blue Road'' * 2016 Global Music Awards Gold Medalist, Best Album, ''The Blue Road'' * 2016 Global Music Awards Gold Medalist, Best New Release 2016, ''The Blue Road'' * 2016 Global Music Awards Bronze Medalist, Instrumental Music * 2017 Quarterfinalist, Music Video Underground committee in Los Angeles, for his animated short film directorial debut of the song "She Became a Thousand Birds". The film is an homage to

Omayra Sánchez Omayra Sánchez Garzón (August 28, 1972 – November 16, 1985) was a Colombian girl trapped and killed by a landslide when she was 13 years old. The landslide was caused by the 1985 eruption of the volcano Nevado del Ruiz in Armero, ...

and victims of the 1985

Armero tragedy The Armero tragedy ( es, Tragedia de Armero, links=no ) occurred following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985. The volcano's eruption after 69 years of dormancy caught nearby towns unawar ...

in Colombia *2019: The best bass player in the worl
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Filmography

Discography

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia-Herreros, Juan 1977 births Bass guitarists Colombian guitarists Colombian jazz musicians Dunedin High School alumni Guitarists from New York City Living people Male bass guitarists Musicians from Bogotá Musicians from Vienna People from Dunedin, Florida 21st-century bass guitarists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians