Ana Florencia Gonzalez
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As a composer, arranger, performer, and session musician, Ana Florencia Gonzalez has been leading bands that range from a duo of guitar and saxophone to a 20-piece big band. Gonzalez's own big band has been together since 2007, playing regularly in Boston until 2011, when it was selected as one of the best four jazz bands in Boston by the Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll. The band received this honor just before Gonzalez moved to New York, where she established a new big band composed by the finest jazz musicians of the city. In New York, Gonzalez became a member of the prestigious BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop, directed by Jim McNeely and Mike Holober. She also performed with her big band regularly, releasing her first CD as a big band leader in 2012: Woman Dreaming of Escape.
Parallel to her large ensembles (a big band and an 11-piece band), she leads a candombe project, which includes horns, percussion, singing, a jazz sextet, a jazz quartet, and beautiful tunes from Uruguay and Argentina. These projects have been performing regularly in Boston and New York, and have been part of a number of jazz and Latin music festivals. In 2014, Gonzalez released her second album in New York, Between Loves, this time with her sextet, as part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival.
Born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, her music career has spanned varied styles, such as jazz, tango, bossa nova, rock, pop, funk, candombe, and more. Gonzalez studied classical saxophone performance in Uruguay. As a classical musician, she was selected as a saxophonist for the National Symphonic Orchestra in 2003. In 2004, she moved to Boston, where she graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music with a dual bachelor's degree in Jazz Composition and Performance. After graduating from Berklee, she pursued her master’s degree in Jazz Composition at New England Conservatory, from which she also graduated with honors.
From a young age, Gonzalez has been working as a music educator, teaching privately and in a number of music schools. This includes teaching various jazz courses at the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, among others. Now, as a professor at Berklee College of Music Valencia, Gonzalez remains a performer, still leading her original music projects and jazz bands. She also continues arranging music for big bands by commission.
- Between Loves (Florencia Gonzalez Sextet) Zoho Music, New York, 2014
- Woman Dreaming of Escape (Florencia Gonzalez Big Band), Boston, 2012
- Member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, New York, NY, 2013–2016
Directed by Jim McNeely and Mike Holober - Her work received very good reviews from Downbeat Magazine, The New York City Jazz Record, the Boston Phoenix, Jazz Inside, and Jazziz
- She has performed in many venues and jazz festivals, playing with Bob Gullotti, Leo Genovese, Luis Perdomo, John Yao, Carmen Staaf, Fernando Huergo and Jonathan Powell, among other musicians
- U.S. Embassy Grant 2010
To act as a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay - U.S. Embassy Grant 2009
To act as a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay - Ascap Plus Award 2010
- Ascap Plus Award 2009
- New England Conservatory of Music Scholarship 2009–11
- New England Conservatory of Music Merit Based Award 2009–11
- New England Conservatory Fellowship 2009–11
- New England Conservatory Grant for student traveling 2010
To perform at “Jazz a la Calle Jazz Festival” - Berklee Achievements Based Scholarship Award 2004–08
- Student Ambassador for Berklee
Barcelona, Spain 2006
Quito, Ecuador 2007 - Graduated with honors from New England Conservatory 2011
- Graduated from Berklee College of Music Magna Cum Laude 2009
- FONAM Grant (National Fund of Music) 2004
- FONAM Grant (National Fund of Music) 2003
- Fundacion Buquebus Grant 2003–04