Nacho Mena

Chilean drummer and Berklee alumnus Nacho Mena gives a clinic as part of Berklee's Latin Music and Culture Celebration. Mena was born in Santiago, Chile, and became interested in music at an early age. In 1970 he moved to Rio de Janeiro with his mother and brother, studied at the Institute Villa-Lobos. His first album, Mail Bag Blues, drew excellent reviews internationally. In 1974, Mena received a scholarship to study arrangement, composition, and drums at Berklee. Ornette Coleman was looking for a drummer and percussionist, and Mena went to New York to join the group.

He returned to Rio in 1980 and formed a new group, Rapa Nui, with whom he recorded his first album with his own compositions. In 1985 he was asked to be assistant producer of Rock in Rio I with Luis Oscar Niemeyer. From 1993 to 1996, Mena ran the Ritmo jazz club in Rio de Janeiro with the owner of the Ex-People. He went back to Chile in 2002 as creative director and music producer at Pérez Rosales University until 2006. That year he established a music career and technology program at the Universidad del Pacifico with great success.

Today, Mena is director of the Music Department of the School of Music and Technology at Universidad del Pacifico, and performs with his new group with musicians Andrés Sylleros, Marcelo Aedo, Andrés Pérez, Fernando Gonzalez, Pedro Melo, Alejandro Sanchez, and Nicolas Severin. The band is about to release a new album.

Read more about the Latin Music and Culture Celebration.