Members

Recorder player and Early Music specialist with over 25 years of international experience as a performer, teacher, and cultural manager. She earned her Master of Arts in Performance – Recorder at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève under Gabriel Garrido, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Pedagogy from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (Colombia). In 2006 she founded Esfera Armoniosa, an ensemble dedicated to the research and dissemination of colonial Latin American repertoire. With the group, she has led archival recovery projects, recordings, and performances at major venues such as Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo. She has also collaborated with ensembles including Elyma (Switzerland), Música Ficta (Colombia), California Bach Society, and American Bach Soloists (USA). She has taught at Universidad El Bosque and the National University of Colombia, and currently resides in Florida, where she continues to promote Early Music as performer, pedagogue, and active member of the American Recorder Society. In 2025 she completed a Master’s Degree in Cultural Project Management and Entrepreneurship (UNIR, Spain), focusing her research on strategies to strengthen the Early Music field in Colombia.

He earned his Master’s degree in Music with emphasis in Voice from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2002. He was awarded the Carolina Oramas Scholarship and received a grant from the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where he specialized in baroque and classical singing under the guidance of Gerd Türk. He has performed as a soloist in concert halls around the world under the direction of distinguished conductors such as Vincent Dumestre, Jordi Savall, Andrea Marcon, Joshua Rifkin, Gabriel Garrido, Jesper Christensen, and Antony Rooley. He has participated in masterclasses and private lessons with renowned singers Andreas Scholl, Emma Kirkby, Gerd Türk, Evelyn Tubb, and Gloria Banditelli. His festival appearances include the Early Music Festival of Amherst (USA, 2000), Festival de Música Misiones de Chiquitos (Bolivia, 2006), Académie Baroque d’Ambronay (France, 2006), Le Chemin du Baroque (France, 2006), the XV Festival Internacional de Música Sacra (Ecuador, 2016), Santa Cruz Baroque Festival (USA, 2017), Festival Internacional de Música de Cartagena (Colombia, 2021), Festival Internacional de Música Sacra de Bogotá (Colombia, 2021), and FIMA Festival de Música Antigua de Lima (Peru, 2023). In addition to his solo career, he has performed with several vocal ensembles, including Orlando de Fribourg, Schweizerkammerchor, Ensemble Alfabeto, Ensemble Música Ficta, and Esfera Armoniosa. In 2006, he was invited to sing the Colombian national anthem at the last preparatory match for the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006, held at Borussia Park Stadium in Mönchengladbach. Alongside his work in classical and popular voice pedagogy, he maintains an active career as a soloist in Colombia, performing with leading orchestras such as the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, Bogotá Symphony Orchestra, and the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra. His discography includes numerous recordings, among them: Barbara Strozzi, Virtuosissima Compositrice with Cappella Mediterranea (Ambronay label); The Passions by William Hayes (Glossa Music); Io vo cantar and Qué dulce violencia with Esfera Armoniosa; Quando sarà quel dì and Amores del Gitano (Universidad de los Andes label); Mis descuidados ojos with Ensemble Alfabeto (Lindoro label); Alternen las Avecillas, Si de la esfera Celeste, Dos estrellas le siguen, and Aves, flores y estrellas with Música Ficta (Etcetera and Lindoro labels); and Un niño nos es naçido with Ensemble Phoenix Munich (Sony Deutsche Harmonia Mundi). He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Music at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Doctor of Music from the University of Barcelona (Spain), where he earned Cum Laude distinction for his research on the Baroque guitar (2008). He graduated as a Bachelor of Music – Guitar from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (1998) and continued his studies at the Escola de Arts Musicals Luthier and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He studied under renowned teachers such as Carlos Posada, Arnardur Arnarson, Xavier Díaz, and Mónica Pustilnik, and further refined his artistry through masterclasses with distinguished musicians including Eduardo Fernández, Marco Socias, Nigel North, and Hopkinson Smith. As a performer, he is a member of the ensembles Música Ficta, Alfabeto, and Esfera Armoniosa, with which he has maintained an active concert career across Colombia, Latin America, the United States, and Europe. His discography is extensive: with Música Ficta he has recorded Alternen las avecillas, Si a la muerte imita el sueño, De mi amor tal ausencia, Alado cisne de nieve, Aves, flores, estrellas, Dos estrellas le siguen, Cuando muere el sol, Del mar del alma, Esa noche yo bailá, and Sepan todos que muero. With Esfera Armoniosa he recorded Io vo cantar and Qué dulce violencia; with Canto Romántico, ¡Ay España infelice!; with Alba Sonora, Sirvió esta mañana el alba; and with Alfabeto, Mis descuidados ojos, Quando sará quel dí, and Los amores del jitano. These recordings have been released by international labels such as Lindoro, Etcétera, Centaur Records, Arion, and Arts. In 2012, he presented his solo album Música para guitarra de mi señora doña Carmen Cayzedo. His academic career includes teaching positions at Universidad Javeriana, Universidad del Atlántico, and Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar. He founded and directed the Department of Music at Universidad del Norte (2009–2021) and, from 2022 until April 2023, served as Head of the Music Section at the Cultural Subgerencia of Banco de la República in Bogotá.

Self-taught in recorder and viola da gamba. Has played for the ensembles La Folia, Ad-Hoc and Arcanus in Bogotá. In the same city he has participated in early music master classes, and has taken courses in viola da gamba in the USA (Amherst Early Music Festival) and Spain (Curso de Música Antigua de Castilla y León, Bejar-Salamanca). He is a founding member of Esfera Armoniosa since 2006, and has taken recorder and performance classes with Liliana Gantívar and Julien Faure.

He began studying recorder and early music as a child with Cesar Iván Mejía, Efraín Sánchez, and Eduardo Vargas. He then began studying the violin at the Youth Symphony Orchestra and at the Paris CNR in Paris. He studied music education at Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and composition at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He has played viola da gamba, violin and recorder in various early music groups such as Música Ficta, Canto, EnsAmble Ad Hoc, and Esfera Armoniosa. As a violinist, he was also a member of the Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Olav Roots Orchestra, and Opéra Jeunesse. Additional to his musical activity, Alfonso is a researcher and professor of philosophy, specializing in Greek/Latin philosophy. He concluded his undergraduate degree at Universidad Nacional de Colombia and his doctorate at Université Paris X. He is currently an associate professor in the Philosophy Department of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and director of the Peiras research group.

Concluded his degree in Early Music at Universidad El Bosque in Bogota in 2005, where his thesis work dedicated to continuo performance, and under the advisory of Liliana Gantívar, received special honors. He began his music and classical guitar studies at Universidad de los Andes with Mauricio Giordanelli, and continued guitar studies at Universidad El Bosque with Carlos Roca, as well as lute with Alberto Leongómez and Armando Fuentes. He studied style analysis with Susana Friedmann, as well as vocal technique and analysis, practice and semiology of Gregorian chant with the Benedictine Father Emmanuel Stephan Löwe. He plays with various Colombian ensembles specialized in early music, such as Scordatura, Alba Sonora, La Esfera Armoniosa, Mvsica Rhetorica, Ad Hoc, and Alfabeto, and accompanies various singers and instrumentalists. He is founding member and currently assistant director of the Schola Gregoriana in Bogota, the only Gregorian chant choir in the country, created by Father Löwe and currently under the direction of Carmelite Father Alejandro Tobón G., O.C.D. He has supplemented his music education with master classes and workshops given by specialists such as Hopkinson Smith, Jean Tubery, Jörg-Andreas Böticher, Raphaël Boulay, Rosa Domínguez, and Federico Sepúlveda, among others. .