About me
Alonso Villa
Percussionist, qanun player, composer and university lecturer in Medellín. I take flamenco and Arabic music to stages in Colombia and around the world.
01 — How it began
I went along to my mother's rehearsals and sat watching how they played and how they danced.
At fourteen I walked onto a stage for the first time with a flamenco cajón, at the Teatro Efraín Arce Aragón, alongside the group La Jarana. Today I am its musical director.
I play flamenco cajón, darbuka, qanun, guitar, oud, kawala and other Arabic percussion instruments. I teach Arabic percussion, flamenco cajón and qanun, I lecture at university, and I am still studying: I am finishing a Master's in Arts with the research project Sonidos Danzantes.
14
years old at my first performance
6+
instruments I play
8
countries I have performed in
1.ª
the country's flamenco-Arabic orchestra, La Jarana, which I direct
02 — What matters to me
Music to learn, to dance and to live by
Students
That they truly learn, and reach a professional level.
Dancers
That they have pieces genuinely shaped around what they need.
Musicians
That they can get hold of good darbukas.
Culture
Bringing flamenco and Arabic music into our own context.
Everyone
That music becomes part of people's lives.
I work with adults and children, beginners and professionals, stage and screen artists, music producers and dancers. The way I teach bends to what each student wants to achieve.
03 — The orchestra
The country's first flamenco-Arabic orchestra
It began as a flamenco group in 2000. In 2007 the Arabic orchestra took shape, and with it have come countless concerts, locally and across the country.
The two line-ups together form the Orquesta Flamenco-árabe La Jarana, which has played in theatres across the country — Teatro Universidad de Medellín, Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe, Teatro Municipal de Cali and others — and in Egypt is recognised as a leading voice for its culture in Colombia. Its productions include arrangements of well-known film and series soundtracks for Arabic music, using instruments native to the Middle East, along with their rhythms and musical character, to give those soundtracks a sound of their own.
04 — Track record
On stage
2026
Performances and workshops in Washington DC and Texas. Qanun player at the Un Pedacito de Mundo festival, Mexico. Concerts in Colombia in various line-ups.
2025
Qanun player and workshop leader at the Crazy Nights festival, Egypt. Percussionist and workshop leader in Washington DC.
2024
Percussionist at the Un Pedacito de Mundo festival, Mexico. Musical director of the La Jarana Flamenco-Arabic Gathering.
2023
Composer and performer of the work Yo, Meira Delmar in Costa Rica. Musical director of the La Jarana Flamenco-Arabic Gathering.
2022
Yo, Meira Delmar in the United Arab Emirates, the Ibero-American Theatre Festival and the International Carnival of the Arts.
2020–21
Online performances with organisations all over the country.
2019
Musical director of the La Jarana Flamenco-Arabic Gathering.
Earlier
Latinarabian in Argentina, Cairo Band in Ecuador, the Antología de la Zarzuela Española, and the score for Las mil y una noches with storyteller Leonardo Muñoz, winners in 2017.
05 — Training
Where I learned
- Master's in Arts, Universidad de Antioquia (in progress)
- Degree in Music, Universidad de Antioquia
- Music computing, ITM
- Event management, Politécnico Colombiano Jaime Isaza Cadavid
- Flamenco cajón at Amor de Dios and with percussionists in Spain
- Arabic percussion with Mohamed El Sayed
- Qanun and Arabic music with Toko Bishara and with masters in Egypt
Shall we work together?
Classes, composition and live shows
Tell me what you need and I'll answer you myself.