Rosino Serrano

Born in Spain, Rosino Serrano has been part of the musical scene of Mexico since the early 80s. He has developed a versatile career in that country, for which he has gained extensive recognition. Since 1997, Rosino shares his professional life between Mexico and New York, being his multiple talents in great demand among the highly competitive circuits of the international music industry. Rosino has composed music for an important number of dance and theatrical performances, as well as multimedia works. He has also scored numerous films, including the controversial feature El crimen del padre Amaro [The Crime of Father Amaro] (Carlos Carrera, 2002), the highest grossing film in the history of Mexican cinematography, which was nominated for the Academy Awards and won the Best Music Award at the Guadalajara Film Festival. The soundtrack CD of this film has been released by BMG / Ariola. Along with composer Carlo Nicolau, he co-scored Santitos [Esperanza's Box of Saints] (Alejandro Springall, 1999), produced by John Sayles, which, among many other distinctions, won the Latin American Cinema Award at Sundance International Film Festival. The soundtrack CD of Santitos has been released on Milan / BMG. Other films scored by Rosino, such as Pantopon Rose (Andrea Di Castro 1997), featuring the late author William S. Burroughs; Vocación de Martirio (Iván Ávila, 1998); La Milpa (Patricia Riggen, 2002); Family Portrait (Patricia Riggen, 2004); have also received critical acclaim. Rosino's score for the feature Adán y Eva (todavía) (Iván Ávila, 2004) was recently nominated for Best Music at the Mexican Academy Awards. Either as a pianist, musical director, composer, arranger, orchestrator or producer, Rosino has worked with some of the most prominent artists of Mexico, including Armando Manzanero, Ricardo Arjona, Eugenia León, Betsy Pecanins, Sin Bandera, Kalimba, Jannette Chao, and Edgar Oceransky, among others. Most recently, he has toured extensively with the Italian pop star Tiziano Ferro. He has produced over 20 albums for both independent and major labels, including Universal Music and BMG. In 1983, Rosino co-founded Banda Elástica, perhaps the most representative avant garde jazz ensemble of Mexico. Already a legend among conaisseurs around the world, Banda Elástica has produced six albums and toured the US, Latin America, and Europe. Rosino's compositions, arrangements, and multimedia works have been performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, Town Hall, and legendary venues such as Birdland and The Knitting Factory, in New York City; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Casa de América and Museo Reina Sofía, in Madrid, Spain; and every major concert hall throughout Mexico, including Sala Nezahualcoyotl, Centro Nacional de las Artes, and Palacio de Bellas Artes. Recent commissions include the MacArthur-Rockefeller Foundations, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, The Commission Project, Central Park Summer Stage, Bobby Sanabria Big Band, the All City High School Jazz Ensemble, the MSM Jazz Orchestra, Teatro Círculo, and Thalia Spanish Theatre. Since 1998, Rosino has held the position of Senior Composer at the award-winning music house Razorhead Music in New York City, being in charge of multiple radio and TV commercial campaigns for clients such as Chrysler, Jack Daniels, Budweiser, Panasonic, and USPS. His popularity is rampant in the city's Latin jazz and pop arenas. His arrangement to Dizzy Gillespie's classic Manteca is included in the Bobby Sanabria Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band album Live and in Clave!!!, which was nominated for the Grammy Award. In 2001, Rosino was appointed Musical Director at Thalia Spanish Theatre, also in New York. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Serrano has served as the Head of the Harmony Department at Academia de Música Fermatta, a branch of Berklee College of Music in Mexico City.