YURGAKI

Nicolás Cristancho, YURGAKI, belongs to the new Colombian music movement.
He is a musician, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer of independent music, researcher of the traditional sounds of the Colombian coasts and Cuban music.
He is a teacher of piano, guitar, singing, music, and body percussion language.

Graduated in Jazz piano from the Javeriana University in Bogota, Colombia, graduated from the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña, in Barcelona, Spain, he has a postgraduate degree from the Conservatorio del Liceu de Barcelona.

Founder and leader of the musical group YURGAKI, where he has assumed various formats, such as duo, trio, quartet, quintet, and band.
Nicolás, takes this artistic name, adopting the surname of his great-grandfather, a Lebanese Syrian migrant, who arrived on the coasts of the North Pacific of Colombia for the gold and platinum fever at the beginning of the 20th century.

Nicolás Yurgaki’s music mixes sounds from the Colombian Caribbean and Pacific with contemporary and urban expressions from other countries, searching for common languages through jazz styles, bringing together music from different origins that maintain their identity seal, but searching for their own roots. His music presents a personal seal that expresses a multicultural richness, as can be appreciated in his productions: “Tres Nuevas formas de respirar bajo el Agua” and “Pacífico”, or his song “Reflejo de la Música”. or his song “Reflejo”.

In Europe where he lives since 2009, he has worked as a music producer, composer, performer, instrumentalist, and music teacher, also collaborating with artists representing traditional Latin American music, among them Nega Lucas (BR), Candombe Tierra (UR), Chonta Dura (COL), Sones de Marimba (MEX) and Sebastian Natal (UR)

He is co-founder of the collective Cistifella Teather, as sound designer and text creator, together with Elena Tilli, stage director, participating in performances of scenic languages. He actively participates in different artistic projects that combine music, dance, audiovisual and theater, and in musical groups, maintaining links of artistic work between different countries and continents.