Ramón Orlando
Ramón Orlando Valoy García (born July 29, 1959), is a Dominican musician, singer, arranger, composer, record producer and songwriter, besides being a gran maestro pianist in Caribbean rhythms. Ramón Orlando has received seven Casandra awards including the "Soberano", which is the most important category in the Dominican awards ceremony. In 2005, he was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award in the Best Merengue Album category. Career. Early life. Ramón Orlando Valoy was born on July 29, 1959 in Manoguayabo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is the son of Cuco Valoy. Ramón Orlando started his music career at age  14, as a singer, piano player, arranger, composer and songwriter in his father's merengue band called "La Tribu." He formed his own merengue music band in 1984 called "Los Virtuosos", later renamed “Cuco Valoy y Orquesta” with Peter Cruz y Henry García as lead singers. Years later, the Cuco Valoy group broke up and Ramón moved to Colombia to physically separate himself from the Dominican Republic due to his political differences with the Dominican president Joaquín Balaguer. Ramón Orlando then undertook a more ambitious musical project. He and then-famous merengue singers Peter Cruz and Henry García formed "La  Orquesta Internacional" (The International Orchestra), in which Ramón Orlando intended to be the composer and musical director, while Cruz and García were intended to be the vocalists. However, of the first ten "single" songs to be recorded (and released individually), Ramón chose to sing four of them himself, which caused a split in the group. Peter Cruz and Henry García then each formed a short-lived group. Upon the two vocalists' departure, Ramón Orlando quickly hired some vocalists with voices sounding similar to those of Cruz and García in order to perform songs already gaining airplay. Ramón Orlando is also  the composer of the theme "El venao", which found a large audience in several Latin American countries including Colombia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Ramón Orlando shares with Juan Luis Guerra the greatest Soberano Award in 1992. He was a nominee in the Latin Grammy Awards of 2005 for the Best Merengue Album (Generaciones) in the tropical category. Ramón Orlando serves as a pastor in a Protestant church.