Biography

 Rafael is one of the most influential flutists in Colombian, both as a performer and as a professor. His students are frequent winners of flute national and international competitions. His professional activities have taken him to perform in venues across Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Israel, Oman, Japan, and the United States.

Rafael has a distinguished career in chamber music. He is a founding member of La Sociedad ensemble, with which he has maintained an active concert schedule in and outside Colombia for over 17 years. In addition to their performances, the ensemble has recorded numerous works by prominent Colombian composers.

In 2024 he appeared at the National Flute Association’s annual convention with his Interdisciplinary project EAC. In 2022 and 2023, he was invited to the Popayán Chamber Music Festival with the Romo Ensemble. In 2019, he performed at the Cartagena International Music Festival alongside pianist Ramin Bahrami and the Cremona Quartet. In 2018, he appeared with the Guloya Ensemble at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention in the United States, at the Flautístico Festival in the Dominican Republic in 2017, at the Preludios Festival in Brazil in 2016, and the same year at the Javeriana University in Colombia. In April 2013, he gave a concert at the Instituto Cervantes in Tokyo with the La Greca ensemble. In 2012, he was invited to the International Festival of Contemporary Music at the University of Chile with the CG ensemble. From 2007 to 2012, he was a member of the Cotoprí Ensemble, with which he toured Brazil and the United States.

Rafael has participated in the recording of several albums published by the Luis Ángel Arango Library, dedicated to the works of composers such as Luis Fernando Rizo (2013), Francisco Zumaqué (2014), Fabián Roa (2016), Pedro Sarmiento (2017), Moisés Bertran (2022), and Natalia Valencia (2024). He also contributed to the album Formas de Recuerdo Sin Territorio (2016), featuring the works of composer Carolina Noguera. In 2017, he performed in the multimedia opera 3mil Ríos by Portuguese composer Victor Gama, and in 2015, he collaborated with the French ensemble Le Balcon on the production of Garras de Oro, presented during the Cartagena International Film Festival. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, he was invited to the Cartagena International Music Festival as a member of the City of London Sinfonia, and in 2023 with the Prague Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to his work with classical flute repertoire, Rafael has extensive experience in popular and jazz music. With the ensemble La Moderna, he released two albums: La Moderna MC (2000) and Jovita (2004). The group performed at major festivals such as the Teatro Libre International Jazz Festival, Barranquijazz, and Jazz al Parque. Between 2010 and 2014, and again in 2017, he was invited by Jazz al Parque to join the Big Band Bogotá, comprising Colombia's most prominent jazz musicians, and recorded several live concert DVDs with the group. Currently, he is a member of the Latin jazz ensemble Igaragó, with which he released their debut album in 2019.

Rafael was the principal flutist of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia for over 10 years and of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Cundinamarca. As a soloist, he has performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Loja (Ecuador), the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, the Banda Sinfónica Departamental del Valle (Colombia), and the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (United States), Orquesta de la Universidad Estatal de Campo Grande (Brazil), among others, premiering works written for him in addition to performing established solo repertoire.

As a performer and professor, he has been invited to festivals and institutions such as the International Flute and Piccolo Festival of Oaxaca (Mexico), the International Flute Festival of Colombia RC, the Southwest Colombian Flute Festival, the Medellín Flute Seminar, the University of North Texas (USA), Prairie View A&M University (USA), Virginia Tech (USA), Campo Grande University (Brazil), the National Conservatory of Music of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), the National School of Music (Cuba), and the University of Panama (Panama), as well as nearly all universities in Colombia with music programs.

Rafael studied flute with Sara Brown, Fabio Londoño, Ronda Mains, and Mary Karen Clardy. He has won awards in various competitions in the United States and Colombia, holds a degree in Music from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and earned a Master's degree from the University of Arkansas (USA).

Rafael is founder and member of the organizing committee of La Flauta Latinoamericana international competition. He served as Director of the Music Studies program at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and is currently a professor of flute and chamber music at the same institution, as well as a flute professor at the Universidad del Valle.