1. Hector Martignon is a Colombian pianist and composer of Italian descent living in New York City.
13 Facts About Hector Martignon
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Hector Martignon is known for crossbreeding the improvisational language of Jazz with diverse musical idioms, such as Classical European, Latin American folklore and World Music.
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At age 18, Hector Martignon abandoned his engineering studies in Colombia in order to formally study music in Germany, where he attained a bachelor's degree in Piano Performance at the Hochschule fur Musik Freiburg, under Robert-Alexander Bohnke.
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Hector Martignon was awarded a master's degree at Manhattan School of Music, studying Jazz Piano with Kenny Barron and Classical Piano with Solomon Mikowsky.
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Hector Martignon toured with Mongo Santamaria, Gato Barbieri, Steve Turre, Paquito D'Rivera, Don Byron and was invited to perform with Max Roach Project America featuring Tito Puente.
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In 1996 Hector Martignon started in earnest a dedicated solo career, performing in music festivals, theaters, clubs and colleges worldwide, releasing in 1997 a first of six albums as a leader, Portrait in White and Black featuring Barretto and Donny McCaslin.
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The Big Band Theory, a big band-plus-strings formatted album with all arrangements and six compositions written by Hector Martignon, was listed as one of Downbeat Magazine's 'Best Albums of 2016'.
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Hector Martignon wrote the scores for one feature film, Septimo Cielo, a short for HBO, From Dusk till Dawn and for two plays for Repertorio Espanol in New York, Ana en el Tropico and award-winning Cita a Ciegas.
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Hector Martignon performed all piano parts for Eat Drink Man Woman, an Oscar-nominated film by Ang Lee, arranging and producing some of the cuts.
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Between 2018 and 2019, Hector Martignon toured 10 cities in Cuba, Europe and China as musical director and pianist of the Cuban Musical Carmen la Cubana, written and directed by British director Christopher Renshaw based on Bizet's opera Carmen.
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Alongside his performing career, Hector Martignon has been actively engaged in the musical training of young generations, teaching Jazz Composition at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Munchen, and at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, in Germany.
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In 2017 Hector Martignon was the piano instructor at the yearly Jazz is Back Summer Festival in Groznjan, Croatia.
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Hector Martignon wrote the Salsa Piano Book, commissioned and published by Hal Leonard.