Juan Gerena

Percussionist Juan Gerena was born in New York of Puerto Rican parents. He has been greatly influenced by the traditional rhythms of Puerto Rican music including the Bomba and Plena. He began his musical career playing bongos as a young child. He has since mastered many other percussion instruments such as timbales, congas, drum set along with many other hand percussion instruments. Juan has studied with master percussionists: Johnny Almendra, Robert Vilera, David Rovins and Tito Cepeda.

In an extremely competitive business, Juan Gerena has managed to become an active player with an excellent reputation as one of New York's most sought after Latin percussionists. During his ten years as a professional musician, Juan has performed with many notable artists including Michael Pemberton, Hector Martignon, Frankie Negron, Grupo Imagen, Broadway singer, Sarah Ramirez and Latin Grammy winner, Laura Pausini. Currently Juan plays timbales for the Christian Salsa singer Puchi Colon and Fania recording artist, Seguida. Gerena also plays drums and timbales for the Latin rock group, SOULSA.

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