Biography

      AUGUSTO ENRIQUEZ

International recording artist. Singer, songwriter and guitar player. Musician band leader. Artistic director and producer. Music recording producer and teacher. Vocal teacher. Vocal and instrument soloist performing coach. Western music history teacher (classical and popular)

 

Originally from Havana, Cuba, Augusto Enriquez is one of the most well-known and charismatic singers and composer of popular music in the Cuban musical panorama and recipient of the ¨Orden por la Cultura Nacional¨, maximum award for Cuban artists conferred by Cuba’s Minister of Culture.

His career as an artist began when after graduating as a doctor of medicine in Havana, he joined one of the most popular music groups in Cuba. With Augusto as the lead singer for “Moncada”, the band began to have great success on the national and international stage. Beginning with big concerts at the University of Havana, where they would play to more than 20 000 people, they ended up having many years of concerts all over Cuba, Europe and North America.

After eight years of touring with Moncada, Augusto began a solo career which included singing traditional Cuban music and touring with his own show, Augusto Enriquez and his Mambo Band. At the same time, he started to work as music recording producer for different international record labels such as BMG, Warner Italia, Fonitcetra, RCA Victor, RAI Trade, EGREM, Colibri, among others.

He was invited by Maestro Luciano Pavarotti to sing with him in the live TV show, “Pavarotti and Friends”.

Featured with such international artists as

Featured with Orchestras:

Record Producer:

Augusto is not only a world class performer, he is also a world class producer. He  co-produced the album 801 latino with the legendary guitar player from Roxy Music Phil Manzanera.

In 1994 together with Phil Manzanera, Augusto co-produced his first solo album Sólo Para Mí in London UK for Ricordi SPA (Italian record label) This album obtained an EGREM award in 1995.

In 1998 he produces his own album Cuando Yo Sea Grande and win his first CUBADISCO award.

An ambitious project in which he recreated Cuban music of the 50's using the sound of the Cuban Jazz- Band format. It was this recording that lead to the creation of his Mambo Band.

This lead to his producing a trilogy of recordings called Trilogy of Mambo for RCA Victor. The project, was designed to be three CDs and pays tribute to the Cuban music of the 50’s. The first CD: “Carambola” sold more than 100 000 in Europe.  The second CD:  “La Bolita” also included a Symphony Orchestra with his Cuban Jazz Band, to recreate some Boleros on the album. The third CD: "Maracaibo Oriental” included his studio production of the live performance with Luciano Pavarotti. All Cds obtained CUBADISCO awards.

In 2009 he recorded and produced the CD "Eclectic-us" for Colibrí Producciones (co-produced by Pucho Lopez). This was a very important recording that began to explore a fusion between Cuban music and the elements of jazz, rock and funk music (CUBADISCO nomination)

In 2010 Augusto began work on the production of another trilogy about great Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez.  The 3 CD’s are called "Te doy Una Canción” and was completed in 2013. He obtained the Jury special award for this work at Cubadisco.

Artistic productions

Augusto was the President and Ceo of the Festival Internacional de Música Benny Moré in Cuba from 2009 to 2014 and Artistic executive of festival del Habano from 2009 to 2012.

Production Collaborations:

He has participated in the recording and production of other international projects:

¨Bridge to Havana¨ composing, singing and co-producing with international artists such as Mick Fleetwood, Paddy Moloney, and Todd Smallwood.

¨Rhythms del Mundo Classics” album (Bohemian Rhapsody) and Revival album (Under the Boardwalk): Producing and singing the songs in which he participated 

Teaching:

In 1995 Augusto started to teach from his own experiences about performing skills, with a course that he called "A faster way to Own The Stage". He first taught this course to some talented university music students in Havana, using technics from drama theater applied to musical performance. Since then he has been teaching and coaching many young Cuban musicians obtaining excellent results.

He has offered clinics, lectures, and master classes in different colleges and universities in Cuba, Italy, México and Canada among others, and developed his own performing coach program for university as a result of his experiences of more than 17 years teaching and improving his technics.

As part of his contribution to the Los Primos Project Augusto has been giving clinics and master classes to  students in the Canadian Primos, Nova Scotia Honour Jazz, community groups, NSCC and St. F.X. University.

In the winter of 2016 was an International Guest Lecturer at NSCC where he delivered a special 8 week series of vocal clinics.

Augusto now is a permanent resident of Canada and is Vocal teacher at the Nova Scotia Community College for the last three years and is performing, producing and recording new projects.