Michel Camilo
Country: Italy
The famous pianist and composer Michel Camilo was born in the Dominican Republic in a musical family. He began playing music from the early childhood, he wrote his first song when he was 5 years old, at 13 he was studying at the National Conservatory and at the age of 16 he became a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. He heard jazz for the first time at 14. The legendary Art Tatum performance on air of a local radio station impressed young musician so much that he decided to connect with this music all his life. Since then, work of Michel Camilo, as well as his famous fellow musicians from the Caribbean islands Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval is filled with love for jazz, influenced by classical education and Latin American origins.
The desire to expand his musical horizons suggested Michel to move to the USA, what he actually did in 1979. In New York the musician continued his education having entered Juilliard School of Music.
Michel Camilo career developed rapidly: the first album he released in 1985, in that year he performed at legendary Carnegie Hall, in 1988 he made his debut on Sony major label. Since then the musician has traveled the whole world with concerts and recorded more than 20 albums.
Michel is known not only as a pianist and composer (whose music, by the way, was performed and is performed now by many well-known musicians), but also as author of music for movies, a teacher, a classical conductor. The musician has Grammy Award (Live at the Blue Note – "Best Latin Jazz Album"), three Latin Grammy ("Best Latin Jazz Album" – What's Up?, "Best Classical Album" – Rhapsody In Blue, "Best Latin Jazz Album" – Spain with Flamenco guitarist Tomatito) and EMMY award.
