BIO
Nicolás is a music composer, multi-instrumentalist, and independent music producer, who also performs under his alias Nico Yurgaki.
He has also researched the musical traditions of the Colombian coast and Cuban music. He has a double bachelor's degree in piano jazz performance from the Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia, and the Superior Music School of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, where he also completed a postgraduate degree at the Liceu Conservatory.
He is the founder and director of the Yurgaki music project, which mixes Caribbean music with contemporary tendencies in the whole language of jazz. With this project, he has recorded and released four albums and toured the world several times in countries such as Colombia, Spain, Equator, USA, Morocco, France, Italy, Romania, Croatia, and Azerbaijan, exchanging and learning from the music of all these different cultures.
Nicolás continues to work with the director and set designer Elena Tilli, co-founder of the Cistifellea Theatre Collective, currently based in Dortmund Germany, where he works as a sound designer, text, and project writer.
With this collective, he had the opportunity to collaborate with stage performance artists in Spain, Mexico, and Germany and to start active research in scenic languages at the Scuola Conia of the Societas Raffaello Sanzio in Cesena, Italy.
In Europe, Nicolás has worked as a music producer, composer, and performer since 2009.
He investigates unconventional forms of participation of the audience while attending a performance and as inspiration to his process with sound. He develops specific tools for interaction and builds custom-based small-scale instruments.
Using software, and electronic sounds, together with live played instruments, Nicolas allows himself a fullscale exploration that together with his wide versatility as a musician and composer, opens up a high level of complexity that translates into a beautiful, inspiring, and sometimes provocative experience for the public.
Since the summer semester of 2024, he has been studying for a Master's degree in Sound Art Composition at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Hochschule für Musik.
www.yurgaki.com
www.cistifellea.eu
EDUCATION
2024-ongoing Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, Hochschule für Musik, Master's degree in Sound Art Composition
2012-2016 Higher School of Music of Catalonia, Spain Bachelor's degree programme in Performance
2009-2011 Conservatory of Liceu, Spain Postgraduate piano jazz
2004-2009 University Javeriana, Colombia Bachelor's degree in piano jazz performance
2000-2002 Higher Institute of the Arts, Cuba Reed playing and classical composition techniques
AWARDS
Codes of Absence - Process Grant - Take Heart Fund Performing Arts - 2023 Ibermusicas Scholarship for Musician Mobility -2019 Mazda Foundation Scholarship for Arts and Sciences for Study Abroad, Colombia - 2009 Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies, Superior Conservatory of Liceu 2009