Manuel Garcia-Orozco

As a music producer, composer, and ethnomusicologist, Dr. Manuel Garcia-Orozco has dedicated his career to producing musical documents that amplify cultures in resistance, under his label, Chaco World Music. Such efforts have gained various accolades, including the 2021 Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for Ancestras (Petrona Martinez) and the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for El Orisha de la Rosa (Magin Diaz), among multiple Grammy nominations. The Chaco World Music releases contain music, artwork, oral testimonies, academic research, and interactive packaging. Collaborations include Petrona Martinez, Angelique Kidjo, Susana Baca, Carlos Vives, Monsieur Periné, Aterciopelados, Flor de Toloache, Aymée Nuviola, Celso Pina, Martina Camargo, the Colombian National Symphony, and many more.

Garcia-Orozco holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University, where he teaches core classes. His dissertation investigates bullerengue music as an aural practice, tradition, and social space through which cantadoras (Afro-descendant elderly women singers) construct and preserve knowledge, memory, and affect, despite multiple oppressions in Caribbean Colombia. He has authored two books in Spanish and the digital educational platform Bullerengue.com.

Garcia-Orozco has presented his research at the Society for Ethnomusicology and various universities in Colombia and the USA. As a composer/musician, he has been featured in international venues, including Carnegie Hall, Cannes Film Festival, Lincoln Center, Blue Note, and Symphony Space. He is the recipient of the Colombian Ministry of Culture’s Award for Music Research, The Latin Grammy Foundation’s Music Research Grant, the ASCAP Foundation’s Cy Coleman Award, and the Fulbright Research Abroad Grant.