Juan Camilo Rojas

The Colombian pianist Juan Camilo Rojas studied at the Universidad del Valle (Cali) under the guidance of teacher Patricia Pérez Hood, continuing them in Germany at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with teacher Prof. Jacques Ammon with whom he also obtained his degree in Performance and Instrumental pedagogy in 2015. As an Erasmus student Rojas studied at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with the pianist Prof. Peter Lang.

Rojas has been the winner of several awards including: “Young Soloists” from the Filarmónica del Valle (2002), 3rd place in the María Clara Cullell International Piano Competition (Costa Rica, 2004), 1st place in the “Luis Carlos” National Piano Competition Figueroa” (Colombia, 2008) and 4th place in the “Musicalia” International Piano Competition (Cuba, 2009).

Rojas has also received important artistic impulses from renowned artists, among them: Jahoved Kaplinsky, Janina Fialkowska, Konrad Elser, Blanca Uribe, Walter Blankenheim, Christoph Ullrich and Luca Chiantore.

In Colombia Rojas has played as a soloist with the Valle Philharmonic, the Young Philharmonic of the Antonio María Valencia Conservatory and the Departmental Band of Fine Arts. In addition, Rojas has offered recitals in Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Germany and Spain.

Juan Camilo is currently carrying out doctoral studies (artistic research – interpretation) at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) under the guidance of the pianist and musicologist Dr. Luca Chiantore. As a researcher he has offered lectures-recitals at the Sorbonne University of Paris, University of Music and Performing Arts of Vienna, 2nd international Hands-On Piano Congress (Portugal), Diego Ghymers artistic research meetings (Spain) and 1st Artistic Research Conferences in Music of the Pyrenees (Spain).

With the cellist Diego Hernández-Vidal he forms the Rojas-Hernández Duo which has performed at various festivals such as the II Popayán Chamber Music Festival, the VII Cali International Chamber Music Festival, the Beethoven 7.30 concert series and the VI International Classical Music Festival of Bogotá “Bogotá is France – La Belle Époque”.

Rojas has been a jury for the tenth edition of the Pianissimo Festival in Medellín and is currently developing a research project with the violinist Diana Rodríguez to carry out the recording of the complete work for violin and piano by the composers Luis Carlos Figueroa and Mario Gómez Vignes.

Rojas has worked as a teacher at the Akademie Hamburg für Musik und Kultur, Musik- und Kunstakademie Lübeck, Klavierstudio Winterhude (Germany), Musikeon (Spain) and the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory (Cali). He currently works as assistant professor and Director of the School of Music at the Universidad del Valle (Cali).