Sebastian Rozo is a Colombian euphonium player and composer with a wide international reputation. His first contact with euphonium was in 1995 in the Symphonic Band of La Calera Cundinamarca, his birthplace.
He studied at the National University of Colombia and the Javeriana University with Carlos Aponte and Nestor Slavov, and from 2000 to 2005 he was part of the Cundinamarca Youth Symphony. In 2006 he settled in Caracas Venezuela, where he was Principal Euphonium of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Band.
Later he traveled to Switzerland, where he won the Ruth und J.Rapp scholarship to pursue a Master’s Degree in classical euphonium and jazz with the renowned Swiss teacher Thomas Rüedi at the Luzern Musik Hochschule, where he achieved high honours. In 2011 he was awarded a Master’s Degree in free improvisation in the Basel Hochschule fur Musik in the class of Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin. He was supported by the Ernerst Göhner Foundation and was awarded a Laureate degree.
In 2014 he became director of the House of Culture of La Calera Colombia until 2016. He was also coordinator of the Wind and Percussion Area of the Tocancipa Cundinamarca Artistic Training School until 2017. Amongst his achievements at this time were: playing in the Strauss Festival with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota 2005, first place in the National Euphonium Contest Tocancipa 2010, Artist invited to the ITEC (International Tuba and Euphonium Conference) in Linz, Austria 2012, the World premiere of his work “Techfonic” for two euphoniums and wind ensemble with Steven Mead in 2014, being invited as a performing artist to the 2nd Festival of La Tigra, where he was crowned as the King of the Festival for the town of Piedecuesta. He has also performed in Santander in 2018, and was Professor of Euphonium and Free Improvisation at the MC Brass & Percussion Festival in Pereira in Colombia in July 2016 and 2017. He has also been invited to be a Guest Professor at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, giving workshops in Free Improvisation with the Euphonium class in Lucerne and Bern in both 2015 and 2017.
Sebastian is passionate about the restoration of Colombian music traditions and about the development of new Colombian music, free improvisation and other styles, such as Frente Cumbiero, La Mojarra Electrica, Mariazu, La Gran resbalosa, La Chirrimia Balsamica, Bandejas Espaciales, Vientox and his project as a soloist, EufoX.
He is euphonium professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota and the School of Music, Media, Art and Technology (EMMAT), which is a partner university to Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Sebastian is a Besson Artist and plays a Steven Mead Ultra SM3XR and uses a Denis Wick DW5513 Straight Mute and a DW5587 Travel Mute for euphonium.
