Tupac Mantilla

Tupac Mantilla (percussion) was born in Bogota, Columbia, and graduated with a master’s degree in music (with honors) from the New England Conservatory. He has worked with Bobby McFerrin, Esperanza Spalding, Danilo Perez, and Julian Lage in what might loosely be called the world of jazz, but he was also the First Prize winner at the 2002 Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra’s Classical Soloist Competition.

He has been associated with Stanford University’s Jazz Workshop and the Berklee College Global Jazz Institute, and lectures and administers percussion programs worldwide through his PERCUATION’s Global Rhythm Institute.

He has appeared at venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican, and the Tanglewood, Montreux, and Newport jazz festivals, among many others.

Much of his current performing focuses on his “Solo Percussion” project, which has led him to develop R.I.T.M.O. (Rhythmic Immersion Training for Multidimensional Openness), a holistic learning methodology that studies life and rhythm and the use of the body as a musical and evolutionary tool.