Biography

Andrés is a renowned Colombian composer born September 6th 1982, nominated to the Macondo award  for Best Original Score with "Ermitaño". He has been writing music for films since 2006 and continues developing a particular aesthetic within his music, which has been widely accepted by the public and the film community.

 

Born in Bogotá and raised in the same city, Cárdenas began his musical studies at the age of 8 with his grandfather, and later began a career as a classical guitarist with well-known teachers from his country such as Gentil montaña, Roberto Martínez, Mario Riveros among many others, achieving recognition as a performer in various national competitions such as the El Nogal guitar festival and participating in international competitions such as the Havana International Guitar Festival.

 

He began his composition studies with maestro Ricardo Márquez at the Gentil Montaña artistic Foundation, where he began his inclination for film music and started his career as a composer with the series "Historias de inventos" (inventions stories), a children's project, winner of the India Catalina award for the best Colombian children's program.

 

Andrés continues his composition studies in Gapa, with the teacher Gustavo Parra who guided Andrés towards a improved symphonic style, with a strong use of orchestration and the development of the leitmotiv, typical tool of the traditional school of music for films.

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In 2009, he entered the National Pedagogical University, where he continued his musical studies in guitar with maestro Edwin Guevara, in composition with Roberto Rubio and in orchestra conducting with maestros Miguel Casas and Camilo Linares, developing greater knowledge of the orchestra and symphonic band. In addition to the typical Colombian and typical orchestral formats of different countries such as the big band, the jazz band, choral formats with white and mixed voices, among many others.

 

In 2015 was a scholarship holder at the VI Film Music Laboratory, organized by the music and creation laboratories directed by Berta Navarro in Mexico City. There he is a participant in the workshop along with other composers from Latin America and is assisted by master composers Leonardo Heiblum, Andrés Sánchez, Leoncio Lara Bonn, Richard Córdoba and Eduardo Gamboa, as well as Peter Golub.

 

He completed master's studies in musical composition at UNIR with teachers Zulema de la Cruz in symphonic music of the 20th century and Alejandro López Román in music for film and audiovisuals, as well as electroacoustic music at the same institution.

 

Throughout his career as a composer, Andrés has written the music for several Colombian films such as Santa María, Ermitaño, Raíces Azules (Blue Roots), La marcha del hambre, among many others, always remaining faithful to a meticulous composition style that goes hand in hand with the narrative aesthetics of each director and the needs of each project.