BANDA DE MÚSICA DEL MUNICIPIO DE SOACHA (Colombia)

Director:
GUILLERMO ESCOBEDOR RODRÍGUEZ

Band profile

The band was founded in 1991 by the Soacha town council and began work in 1992 with 25 young students. It gave its first performance in August of the same year. The band has been generously supported by the local council and the Tequendama sports and social club - as part of an effort to raise musical and cultural awareness among local youth. Prizes won in recent years include:
April 2000 - Best band award in the regional contest celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Banda de Chocontá.
September 2000 - First prize in the special category in the XXV Villeta-Cundinamarca band festival.
October 2000 - First prize in the special category in the XXVI Paipa-Boyaca national competition.
August 2001 - First prize in the XXVI Villeta-Cundinamarca band competition.
September 2001 - Best band in special category of the Villeta-Cundinamarca band competition
October 2001 - First prize in special category of the XXVII national Paipa-Boyacá contest.
November 2001. Best band in the X El Retiro-Antioquía band contest.

Director profile

Guillermo Escobedor Rodríguez was born in Manizales and has completed all his studies in Bogotá, Columbia. His first teachers were his father, Jesús G. Escobedo, then director of the Chocontá municipal band in Cundinamarca; and Arcadio Rodríguez, a former clarinet player with Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. He later enrolled at the Universidad Nacional Conservatorio in Colombia, and completed his basic studies in musical grammar, musical theory, choir, clarinet, under the direction of Roberto Mantilla. He has a degree in musical management from the Universidad Antonio Nariño and was appointed as an assessor to Columbian ministry of culture's national band program. He studied harmony and instrumentation with Justo Pastor García, Pedro Heriberto Morán and Gustavo Parra; as well as completing other studies with Eduardo Carrizosa, Néstor Calderón, Germán Gutierrez, Mitsua Nonami, Gerald Brown, Fernando León. He participated in a national workshop for band directors given by David Mackenzie and the Columbian national symphony orchestra.
He has been director of the Banda de Música de Soacha since its foundation and is also co-director of the bullring band 'Plaza de Santamaría' in Bogot