Music Performance,
Latin Folkloric Show
- Genre EMI -- Latin America - MUSIC
- URL
- Biography Diego Coy is from Santiago de Cali, Colombia. He is the former musical director of “Fundacion Viva La Musica” and “Fundacion Funmusica” in Cali, Colombia where he taught Colombian folk music. He began his musical career in 1986 at the “Instituto Popular de Cultura de Armenia” in Quindio, Colombia. In 1990 he furthered his musical studies at Colombia's Universidad del Valle in Cali. After that, Diego began his years of journey, traveling to Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru to learn the musical traditions and various wind instruments and South American percussion of native Andean cultures. It was during this time that he mastered the quena and the zampoña, and learned to handmake his own instruments. In 1994 he also contributed his craft skills of hand-made quenas and zampoña for a project called “Timpano” sponsored by Colombian government through “Funmusica”. He donated 100 quenas, 100 traverse flutes and 50 zampoñas and taught children in need how to play them. In 1996 he served as the director of “Grupo Juglares”, which was the declared winner at the “Festival José A. Morales El Socorro” in Santander, Colombia. As a prize, the group was invited to perform at the “Fiesta Latina” in South Carolina. In 1997 he played together with his new band members of “Viva la Musica” in Hiroshima, Japan at the famous Flower Festival. He also performed with “Viva la Musica” as member and director at the Festival of Tolerance in Prague, Czech Republic. Diego has since played in Italy, France, and various cities across the US. Since coming to Seattle in 2003, Diego has been performing at the Northwest Folklife Festival, Washington Flute Circle, University of Washington World Series, Seattle Symphony Educational Program, Seattle Rhythm Festival, Seattle Fiestas Patrias, Seattle Sea Fair, and more. Diego has received a recording grant from the King County 4Culture Special Project and “Quinbaya Award” from Centro Cultural Hispano Americano Organization in Washington.
