Victoriano Francisco Valencia Rincón

Victoriano Valencia is a composer and music educator whose career focuses on artistic creation through composition and arrangement for symphonic ensembles, popular music ensembles and staged productions, as well as research on educational topics and the design of pedagogical materials. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (1995) and a Master’s degree in Composition from Universidad EAFIT (2012). He is a professor in the Department of Music at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, where he teaches in the areas of composition, music education, jazz, popular music, and Colombian regional music. He served as Chair of the Department from 2019 to 2022 and currently coordinates the area of Colombian, Latin American, and Caribbean musics.

Valencia's creative work is rooted in the exploration of multiple identities, cultural translations, and experiential creative processes. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Latin American composers for wind and percussion ensembles. His works have been performed in over 30 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and include five suites for concert band, fandangos, the Ritmos de la Tierra collection, and several concertos for soloist and wind orchestra. His output spans both professional and educational contexts, with a significant body of level-based repertoire for bands, orchestras, and choirs.

He has received commissions from ensembles and soloists in Europe and North America, as well as from institutions such as the National Band of Colombia, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, the Colombian Youth Philharmonic, Fundación Nacional Batuta, Misi Producciones, and various cultural organizations in Colombia.

In the academic field, he has published articles with historiographic, reflective, and pedagogical approaches on the practice and development of wind bands in Colombia and Latin America. He is a member of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) and of the Colombian Association of Composers and Arrangers for Bands and Ensembles (ACCOMPAS).