Juan Garcia-Herreros
Juan Garcia-Herreros, also known as "The Snow Owl", is a Colombian bassist who plays a custom six-string electric contrabass guitar. History. Juan Garcia-Herreros was born in Bogotá, Colombia. His first musical studies began with flute at the age 9 after moving to New York City with his family. Once he completed middle school his family relocated once again to Dunedin, Florida where he discovered the electric bass. Due to the fact that his family was unable to afford private lessons his passion for learning fueled him to become a self-taught musician. Juan was  16 when he began to teach music theory and jazz performance at Dunedin High School in Florida. His high-school band teacher encouraged him to also study acoustic bass so that he could be a part of the symphonic band in school. He auditioned and became proficient enough to perform with the Tampa Bay Symphony at 17 years of age. At age 30, he was selected by a jury to become part of the faculty for the Jazz Institute of the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz. He was the first Colombian to be honored with such an academic  position in Austria. He left the Jazz Institute in the fall of 2012 due to a very busy touring schedule. At age 37, he was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album, for his third CD release entitled "Normas".