Alum

Edmar Colón

Position
Instructor
Telephone
617-747-6292

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Edmar Colón is a saxophonist, pianist, and composer from Coamo, Puerto Rico, currently living in Boston. He has toured and played in venues and events such as the Detroit Jazz Festival, the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Festival, the Toronto Jazz Festival, the Panama Jazz Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Festival, among others. He recently played in the Kennedy Center for the Arts Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival and the Abbey Lincoln tribute tour with Grammy Award recipients Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, Dianne Reeves, and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Colón has performed with artists such as Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Danny Rivera, and Ledisi, among many other notable artists from various musical genres. He has written and arranged music for Carrington, Spalding, Rivera, and the Harvard University Orchestra, among others.

In 2016, Colón was awarded the Latino 30 under 30 Award New England from the newspaper El Mundo. He was also awarded first prize at the Keep an Eye International Jazz Awards in Amsterdam as a part of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. In 2017, he was honored in the annual Patron Saint festivities of his hometown of Coamo. 

Career Highlights
  • Performances with Terri Lyne Carrington, Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Esperanza Spalding, and Dianne Reeves, among others
  • Arranger for the Harvard Big Band and the Sing the Truth show at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring Carrington, Patti Austin, Ledisi, Judith Hill, and Dee Dee Bridgewater
  • Transcriptions include Spalding's most recent album, Exposure
  • Copyist for Wayne Shorter's most recent orchestral work
Awards
  • El Mundo Boston, Latino 30 under 30 in 2016, as an outstanding member of the Latino community in Boston
Education
  • M.M., Berklee College of Music, Berklee Global Jazz Institute, global studies, performance concentration, 2016
  • B.M., Berklee College of Music, classical composition and performance, 2015  
In Their Own Words

"I want my students to discover creative ways to approach the material given in class. I want them to come out with the confidence that they can be better musicians by becoming better human beings in the process. I believe that the best teachers are those who teach us how to teach ourselves."

"In the last few years, I have been working with the most prominent names in music, such as Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Danilo Pérez, Wayne Shorter, John Patitucci, and others, both by playing and writing. This provides me with a direct insight into what is happening in the current world of music. Thus, I can bring to the classroom and to each student an experience that is both rooted in academia and road experience."

"Learning should always be fun and creative. I believe that having a combination of the things I've previously mentioned can provide this environment for the students and the Berklee community as a whole."