English - Ania Paz

Ania Paz, Peruvian and Spanish pianist and composer, is known for her modern and driving sound, impregnated by an original new fusion of Afro-Latin styles within the Jazz language.

She was born in Lima, Peru, where she started studying music at the age of 3, and wrote her first composition at the age of 6. Her passion for music took her to different countries, studying classical music as well as jazz, first in Germany and then in the United States. She settled later in Latin America, where she explored its various musical styles.

She earned her doctorate in music theory in Mexico. In her dissertation she developed a symmetrical model on the relationships between harmonic intervals, which raises a new perspective on the determinations of their degrees of consonance and dissonance.

As a composer she won, among others, the José Reyes symphonic composition prize of the Ministry of Culture in the Dominican Republic; the Festival Claro Song Competition in Lima, Peru; and the Jazz Composition Prize at Casa de Teatro in Santo Domingo.

Ania Paz places great importance on creating music that reflects the human and musical dialogue between different cultures and strengthens cultural bonds through the universality of jazz. After touring and performing at numerous international jazz festivals such as the TCI San Jose Jazz Festival in California, the Festival Internacional JazzUV in Mexico or Buenos Aires Jazz in Argentina, she has developed other multicultural projects with newly formed friendships. Ania Paz has realized a variety of binational productions such as Dos Mundos, Fortaleza and Chidísimo Más. She was a featured organizer on the occasion of UNESCO’s International Day of Jazz, receiving recognition for her work on the dialogue between cultures through jazz.

A central concept of her work is to inspire women in creative disciplines and leadership roles. Ania Paz is part of the collective Mujeres de Iberoamérica en el Jazz, composed of Latin American female jazz musicians, and participates in events organized by the women composers collective Retama. In addition, she has participated in various forums that deal with the role of women in music and jazz.

Established in Latin America, the musician expands her internationality with the Berlin production “Espacios”. The compositions have their origin in numerous travel experiences of Ania Paz. For the first time these now merge with the colors of the Berlin jazz scene, resulting in a sound explosion of Latin American vitality, passion and freedom in contemporary jazz.

She is the leader and founder of the Ania Paz Trio in Berlin, Germany, a group with a unified vision as soloists and rhythm section that perseveres on the creation of a new sound in Contemporary Latin Jazz. The Trio performs regularly at several Jazz Clubs in Berlin.

On the drums, Christoph Hillmann is considered to be a particularly sensitive, detailed and powerfully-swinging multi-stylist between world music, various jazz traditions and avantgarde. On the double bass, Carmelo Leotta is a musician established throughout Europe who has embraced the diversity of musical trends such as jazz, blues, electronic and world music.

Other performances include the International Chamber Music Festival; the Huánuco International Jazz Festival; the International Vibraphone and Marimba Festival Vibraciones; the I International Zapateo-Dance Festival Lima Zap Festival, and the Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano concert in Arequipa. Her concerts and projects are presented in several media, such as Movistar Musica and Sonidos del Mundo on TV Peru.

She produced and directed for the United Nations, the European Union and the Ministry of Culture multidisciplinary performances at the Teatro Nacional in Santo Domingo and at the Gran Teatro del Cibao in Santiago, integrating artists from different musical genres. She incorporated artistic expressions such as dance, poetry and literature, theatre and visual effects.

During several years she produced international multicultural concerts in the Dominican Republic such as Women in Jazz and Colors of Jazz, where she additionally participated as a musician.

She is the founder and leader of the Ania Paz Jazz Ensamble in Santo Domingo; as well as the producer of the Ania Paz Jazz Series, a multidisciplinary and cutting-edge initiative with the concept of jazz without borders that embraces the multicultural legacy, stimulates the development of creative new trends, and inspires the community through the artist’s values.

She successfully launched 9 CDs and 1 DVD of original music. Her Chidísimo Más CD was featured in Argentina, Germany, Peru and Uruguay by several specialized media. In addition, her Fortaleza CD was ranked among the best Peruvian albums in the listings of media Estereofonía and Rock’ Achorao.

As an educator, she created and directed the first Contemporary Latin Jazz course at the Iglobal University of Funglode in Santo Domingo; she restructured the curriculum at the Folklore Department of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Santo Domingo; she founded the Jazzymas academy and created its curriculum; and she published several jazz and modern styles methods. She was a professor of Harmony, Composition, Arrangement, Ensemble and Improvisation and a thesis advisor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, where she received the “Talento de Oro” award (“Golden Talent”). She is currently part of the faculty staff at the UdK – University of the Arts – in Berlin.

She created a course called Jazz, Freedom and Creativity as part of the Master in Musicology program at PUCP. She represented this university at the First Jazz Education in Latin America Conference, organized by JazzUV (Universidad Veracruzana) in Mexico.

As a researcher, she presented a conference about the development of African rhythms in different areas of America at the ALARA international convention – Afro-Latin and American Research Association -, receiving recognition for extraordinary support from the University of Missouri-Columbia in the United States. She currently publishes articles about Jazz in Peru and The artist’s look at Jazz in the Jazz Research, Critic and Promotion Magazine Bop Spots (Mexico) and the EncontrArte Musical Magazine (Argentina). She also collaborates with Vibración Azul Jazz Radio Show at the Colima University in Mexico.