Fernando Valencia, instructor of percussion in the Department of Music, has been invited to Cartagena, Colombia, for the 10th annual "Clinicas Instrumentales" on Monday, Oct. 7, through Saturday, Oct. 12.

The event is a week-long convention of performance classes, group and private instrument lessons, concerts and presentations. The gathering will host over 40 guest teachers from all over the world, including Germany, Argentina, South Korea, Cuba, the United States, France and Italy. Valencia will be helping to teach and perform while attending the convention.

The goal is to strengthen the training and education processes of children's and youth music classes in the Caribbean region and increase the visibility of the Adolfo Mejia Navarro Conservatory of Music, an accredited high-quality program with 135 years of history in Cartagena. Nearly 70 workshops, six conferences and 10 concerts are planned for students and audiences at the conservatory during the week-long event.

About Valencia: A native of Colombia, Valencia is currently an instructor at the U of A in the areas of applied percussion and Latin American music. Valencia received his B.M. from the Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia) and his M.M. from the U of A under the guidance of Chalon Ragsdale. He later went on to Temple University to obtain the Professional Certificate of Studies with Alan Abel of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he was awarded the Avedis Zildjian Percussion Scholarship.

Formerly the principal percussionist of the National Wind Symphony of Colombia, he has also performed with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the Bogota Philharmonic and the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey, among others. Alongside his academic training, Valencia has been involved in the research and performance of his Afro-Colombian and Afro-Caribbean musical roots, interests that allowed him to obtain a scholarship to study Afro-Cuban drumming at the prestigious Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana, Cuba, in the summer of 2003.

While on the East Coast, Valencia was a percussion associate faculty member at the Settlement Music School of Philadelphia and performed with several well-known Latin artists such as Edgar Maldonado (Celia Cruz's band), Anthony Colon and Orlando Fiol, among others. He also played for the Off Broadway show A Night at the Alhambra Cafe and made the percussion sub list for The Lion King on Broadway. Some of his commercial compositions have been broadcast on television in Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom and on VH1 in the U.S.