Biography

Colombian pianist and composer Ricardo Gallo has written for acoustic and electro-acoustic formats, for short films, videos, dance, installations, and multimedia stage productions, and has performed and written for improvisatory groups. He has published fourteen albums as a leader, his music has appeared in several compilations in Colombia, USA, and Europe, and has participated in recordings of several other groups.

Among his main projects is the Bogotá-based quartet he has led since 2005, developing repertoire and an improvisational approach that integrates an avant-garde and free language with rhythmic and melodic elements from folkloric musical traditions. Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto has released six albums: Los Cerros Testigos (2005), Urdimbres y Marañas (2007), Resistencias (2010), Tribu del Asfalto (2013), En Tránsito (2018), and the live album Novara 2012 (2022).

Currently in New York, he leads the tropical-electric-groovy band Los ALiENs with which he published the LP Odd Subjects in 2022 with the label Juga Music. He also plays his music with the acoustic quartet Horse’s Mouth.

Since 2016 Gallo has collaborated with Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña, performing as a duo in the U.S., Chile, and Colombia.  For Vicuña’s Brain Forest Quipu, her commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London in 2022, Gallo directed the contribution of several musicians and also arranged and designed with sound artist Ariel Bustamante the “Sound Quipu” – the sonic component of the piece.  In 2018 he created the sound design for Cecilia’s Disappeared Quipu, a multimedia installation for the Brooklyn Museum and MFA in Boston, and composed a piece based on her poetry commissioned by Ensemble Ipse.  Vicuña and Gallo have created other sound pieces for the Gwangju Biennale in Korea, Moca Tucson in Arizona, and Ballroom Marfa in Texas based on Cecilia’s chants and poetry.

Gallo has received commissions from the Colombia Symphony Orchestra, the Big Band Bogotá, and contemporary music ensembles in New York and Bogotá. He has received support for his work from the Queens Council of the Arts, the Jerome Foundation as a finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and funds for tours and residencies from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, The Banff Centre, and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in Canada. Gallo is a MacDowell fellow and has also been in residence at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan, China. He has performed his music in Peru, Puerto Rico, Canada, Kenya, China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Germany, Chile, Argentina, U.S.A. and Colombia.

In New York he has led the group Tierra de Nadie, with seasoned musicians such as trombonist Ray Anderson, saxophonist Dan Blake, bassist Mark Helias, and percussionists Pheeroan akLaff and Satoshi Takeishi. With this project, he released the album The Great Fine Line in 2010 under Clean Feed Records.

Two notable duos are his long-lasting project with guitarist Alejandro Flórez, publishing in 2009 the album Meleyolamente as a debut for the label Festina Lente Discos, and Algo Más Melódico in 2019 with the same label.  With singer Juanita Delgado they published Canciones internas y de otras partes in 2016.

With the multimedia group La Quinta del Lobo, he has participated as composer and performer on piano, keyboards, and electronics on two large-scale stage pieces: Vanitas Libellum and Cuentos de la Mangleria, performing in several theaters in Colombia as well as in Peru, Hong Kong and U.S.A.

Gallo has participated in projects led by Ray Anderson, Peter Evans (Live in Lisbon), Santiago Botero (MULA, El Ombligo), Edson Velandia (Bin Ban, Aputoi), Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo), Andrés Jiménez (Dilemastronauta) Lukas Ligeti (notebook) among others.

He finished his undergraduate at the University of North Texas with honors and holds a Master’s and Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University. He lives in New York and maintains a strong connection with Bogotá’s music scene.