Luis Gabriel Diaz Jimenez

Luis Gabriel, percussionist of the Barquisimeto nucleus belonging to the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela, was born in Barquisimeto on November 1, 2008. At the age of 3 he joined the Guaritos Choir and the following year he began his orchestral training in the “Compota” Initiation Program under the general direction of Prof. Yajaira Echeverría and the direction of Prof. Arturo Riera in the percussion row. He joined the percussion ranks of the “Doralisa de Medina” Children’s Orchestra, “Franco Medina” Youth Orchestra and currently the “Juan Jacinto Lara” Youth Symphony Orchestra of Larense, Symphony Orchestra of the Vicente Emilio Sojo del Edo Conservatory. Lara and YZA International Orchestra. He has been part of the percussion lineup as a guest of the Edo Symphony Orchestra. Lara and the Yaracuy Philharmonic. He has also belonged to different Percussion Ensembles of the Lara State: Compota and Pre Infantil under the direction of Prof. Arturo Riera, Infantile Ensemble under the direction of Prof. Antonio González and Corporal Ensemble under the direction of Prof. Michael Sánchez.
He has participated in various national and international percussion festivals, having an outstanding participation in the XI International Percussion Festival Venezuela 2019 and in the IV Valdivia Percussion Festival (Chile) with the Toshiro Mayuzumi Concert for Xylophone and Orchestra accompanied on the piano by Maestro Serguei Pylenkov, in 2021 at the I Yaracuy Percussion Festival and at the I Mérida Percussion Festival 2022 and XII Caracas International Percussion Festival 2022 as a participant and as a soloist with the I and IV Movement of Concert Number 1 for Marimba and Ney Rosauro Orchestra accompanied by a percussion ensemble. In 2020 he had a participation in Yola National at Home, The Spirit of the Music by Gustavo Dudamel.
He also belongs to the El Sistema Percussion School, the Simón Bolívar Conservatory of Music and the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory of Music.
He has participated in several international competitions obtaining in 2020 the first place in category III of Percussion in THE NORTH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION (91/100pts). He was absolute champion in the “TOCAR Y LUCHAR” contest in its first edition in 2020, children’s category.
His current professors are Arturo Riera and Andrés Eloy Gómez; He has received master classes with professors José Colina, Juan Aguilar, Daniel Moran, Masters Acuarius Zambrano, Roger Carlsson, Ramón Granda, Juan Silva, Simón González, Alfredo Naranjo, Manuel Rangel, Vladimir Quintero, Félix Mendoza and Huascar Barradas. He has also received classes from Master Rodrigo Kanamori from Chile. It is part of the Guinness Record awarded to the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela held in November 2021 as the World’s Largest Orchestra and was selected to belong to the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela 2022.

You can find Luis’s 2022 Contemporary Music Competition marimba performance here.