Marina Albero

Marina Albero was born in Barcelona in 1979 and since her early childhood she has been involved in the world of music. She played traditional and early music with the family band Grallers de Banyoles-Estampida Medieval. At the age of eight she enroled in the public School of Music and studied music and piano, four years later she studied drums with César Martínez and jazz piano with Lluís Escuadra at Taller de Música de Banyoles and kept on working with the family project, which took them twice to Japan and the US between 1992 and 1993. Marina studied music theory at the Conservatorio Isaac Albéniz (Girona) symphonic percussion at the Conservatorio Municipal de Barcelona and took private piano lessons with C.Julià. In 1995 the whole family moved to Cuba and Marina enroled in the Instituto Superior de Arte, where she was taught by Teresita Junco, Ivet Frontela, Guido López-Gavilán, Pancho Amat... During her time in the island she playsed psaltery with the Cuban Rennaissance-style band Ars Longa, she also facilitated them information and instruments, and took part in the Festival Internacional de Coros de Santiago de Cuba (1995) and she also recorded with Silvio Rodríguez. In summer 1996 Estampida S.L. produced the “son cubano” band Barnhabana, conducted by Barbarito Torres ( Grammy’s winner with Buenavista Social Club) and went on tour through Catalonia, Spain and Portugal. Marina played the piano. She came back to Cuba and finished her studies in summer 1997. She settled in Spain later that year and combined teaching with her own musical projects, together with the family project. Nowadays she is a member of La Folata, a band with Belgium and Spanish musicians, which delves into old music, specially into Ars Subtilior, and has taken part in several relevant festivals such as the Barcelona Ancient Music Festival and the Bruges Ancient Music Festival. Besides, they have been rewarded in Brussels with the annual prize for talented youth. Albero has collaborated in the last album of “L’Arpeggiata” together with renowned artists such as Christina Pluhar and Pepe Habichuela. She is the leader and composer of her own jazz trio and in 2005, together with Marc Egea and Mariona Sagarra, she founded the experimental music trio “Maram”, which has had a great welcomig. She is also a member of the last musical project carried by well-known pianist Chano Domínguez, “New Flamenco Sound”.