MANUEL CALVO KAMPER

Photos by Ario Omidvar

THE STORY

My musical life started in 1996 at the age of 15.
Back then, I thought about studying informatics but as soon as I played guitar for the first time, it ended up becoming an obsession.

While being at school, José Vicente Sáenz was my first guitar teacher. From him I learned the basics of guitar techniques and some musical theory, he insisted several times that I should study music, and although it was very tempting, I still was sure that my career would be in informatics.

After school, from 1998 to 1999, I took private lessons with Germán Darío Liceaga, who played with the bands Aterciopelados and the former band of Juanes.
This teacher helped me improve considerably my technique as a guitarist, and showed me a world of virtuosism and complex musicality. During those two years he showed me astonishing musicians, that I never thought they could exist, and it was at that moment, when I realized that I should become a musician.

In 1999 I went to the "University - El Bosque" in Bogotá/Colombia, where I made my studies in music. During the first two semesters I studied classical guitar with Prof. Irene Gómez, but my true interest lay in modern guitar, so from 2000 to 2003 I studied Jazz with Prof. Gabriel Rondón, Kike Mendoza and Ricardo Márquez Romero, three fantastic musicians to whom I owe most of what I know about harmony and improvisation.

After the University I left Colombia and travelled to the USA where I lived four years, and during that time I played with several bands, but mostly with two which styles were very different from each other: Robert Lee Miller (Country Music) & Shangri La (Nujazz).

In 2008 life brought me back to Colombia, there I worked as a vocal coach at the acting academy "Gea Proyecto K", and also composed the music for two productions made by the same academy.
That was the first time that I worked as a composer and since then, being a composer has become one of the pillars of my musical life.

Finally in 2009 I came to Vienna. Here I work mostly at giving guitar and applied theory lessons, but obviously as a guitarist and composer as well.

I mentioned at the beginning that I wanted to study informatics.
Well... I haven't left computers after all, the use of computers for audio production and MIDI programming is something I rely all the time, plus with the years I've learned some design and coding as well... An example of it is this website, which isn't the only one I've made.
If you want to see my work as a web designer, please go here.

Also, since I came to Austria, my wish for learning languages began to grow, thus now I offer my lessons in four languages... English, German, Spanish & Italian.

Through all these years I've played with several projects of different styles (Pop, Jazz, Rock, Wienerlied, Metal, Funk, Latin...) and grown as a composer as well as producer.
If you want to listen to my work as a composer, please go here

Up to this day I've composed, orchestrated and arranged 54 pieces (35 of them are already published), and currently I'm working on my fifth production which is planned to be finished next year.

To be continued...