Edmar Castaneda

Since arriving in the United States in 1994, Colombian-born harp virtuoso Edmar Castaneda has forged a unique musical path bringing a wholly original voice to jazz and other genres. Born in 1978 in Bogotá, Castaneda took up the harp as a teenager, playing the folkloric music of his homeland. He discovered jazz after moving to New York City where he was introduced to the jazz community by Paquito D’Rivera, who called him “an enormous talent… with the charisma of a musician who has taken his harp out of the shadow to become one of the most original musicians from the Big Apple.” Since then, Castaneda has taken the world by storm with the sheer force of his absolutely virtuosic command of his instrument “A master of skillfully drawing out lush colors and dynamic spirit and crafting almost unbelievable feats of cross-rhythms, layered with chordal nuances rivaling the most celebrated flamenco guitarist’s efforts,” Castaneda is also the consummate collaborator, having forged a series of exciting partnerships, including his latest with Japanese pianist Hiromi, with whom he recently released Live in Montreal. Castaneda has also performed and recorded with John Scofield, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Marcus Miller, John Patitucci, Miguel Zénon, Brazilian pop-jazz great Ivan Lins, Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Chico O’Farrill‘s Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band and has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and the 10th annual World Harp Congress. “If you aren’t watching Castaneda in action, you might think you’re listening to an ensemble rather than a solo player. His left hand pops and slaps the strings, dancing across minor-key ostinatos, while his right hand arpeggiates chords and invents spontaneous micro-melodies. Between both hands, you hear the overlapping polyrhythms of joropo, a complex, triple-meter dance from South America.” – Hartford Courant.