YURGAKI

Nicolás Cristancho -Yurgaki- is part of the new Colombian music movement.
Composer and multi-instrumentalist, specialized in jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. Sound designer for theater and performing arts. Explores the traditional sounds of the Colombian coasts and Cuban music.

Nicolás first came into contact with music when his mother, the percussionist Bertha Quintero, rehearsed at home with the salsa orchestra she led when he was very young. In 1999, he went to Cuba to study sight-reading and composition with teachers Elvira Fuentes and Tulio Peramo. He obtained a double degree in jazz piano at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, and at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catauña, Spain, where he reconnected with his father, who was also a musician – Macabí.

Founder and leader of the music group Yurgaki, he has adopted various formats such as duo, trio, quartet, quintet, and band.
Nicolás Yurgaki bears the surname of his great-grandfather, a Lebanese-Syrian immigrant who came to the coasts of the North Pacific in Colombia at the beginning of the 20th century because of the gold and platinum fever.

Yurgaki’s music blends sounds from the Colombian Caribbean and the Pacific with contemporary and urban expressions from other countries, taking jazz language to search for a common sound, bringing together music from different origins trying to be aware of the dynamic process of cultural identities.

His music has a personal stamp that expresses a multicultural richness, as can be heard in his productions: “Tres Nuevas formas de Respirar Bajo el Agua” and “Pacífico”.

Nicolas, who lives in Germany, is co-founder of the theater collective Cistifellea together with director and set designer Elena Tilli, where he works as a sound designer, performer, and author. His practice of improvisation and his emphatic approach during the process offer unique possibilities.
He loves to play with what audience participation can offer to sound by developing specific tools for interaction and building customized instruments on a small scale. Nicolas allows himself a full-scale exploration that together with his wide versatility as a musician and composer, opens up a high level of complexity that translates into a beautiful, inspiring, and sometimes provocative experience for the public.