Pedro Isea Herrera

Pedro Isea is a Venezuelan musician born in Caracas in October 28th 1971 who very early started to make vocal music and play the venezuelan cuatro and percussion for vocal groups in his school and university. He began music studies in 1982 in Padre Sojo music school in Caracas and developed a ten years career singing and making percussion for different choirs.

Since 1994 he studied afro-venezuelan and latin percussion (congas) for five years with the professors Alexander Livinalli (multiple participations), Jesús Paiva (Vasallos del Sol), William Troconis (La Banda Sigilosa, Grupo Maroa, La Platabanda...) and Manuel Moreno (Grupo Herencia) at the Popular Culture School of Bigott Foundation and in the UCV (Universidad Central de Venezuela). In 1995 he founded “Mestizos Ensamble” with the pianist and singer Alicia Dávila recording 6 tracks which were showed in radio and TV programs. In that year he studied Jazz history and vocal percussion.

Since 2002 and for almost three years he studied afro Brazilian percussion with the Brazilian - Venezuelan percussionist Carlos Rojas in the Brazilian Venezuelan Cultural Institute. At the same time he played percussion and congas with the group “Son de la Gaita” and was director of a vocal octet named “Contraste”

In 2003 he started an intense work of investigation and diffusion of Brazilian music in Venezuela founding and developing the musical group “Pimenteira Brasil” with Carlos Rojas, Luciano Calello, Julio Medina, Wily Noya and José Ramón Navarro, making almost 200 concerts and open rehearsals in Caracas and other cities and recording two CD, Pimenteira Brasil (2004) and Sambando en Caracas (2008). In 2004 and for three years he was musical director of the traditional Venezuelan music group named “Grupo Matices” which presented a musical show with scenic movements and live music traveling through various traditional music and dance of Venezuela called “De lo ancestral a lo actual” (From the Ancestral to the Currently). Also he started to play the Brazilian Cavaquinho and to compose brazilian music.

Since 2008 Pedro Isea came out from Pimenteira Brasil and with Julio Medina (Guitar), Daniely Benitez (Flute) and Luciano Calello (Cavaquinho) decided to create the musical group “Só Sambistas” of samba and choro. With a musical work of major level, this group has made concerts in diverse places in Caracas with participation of excellent musicians as Marcus Santos (Salvador de Bahia, Brazil), Diego Álvarez “El Negro” (Venezuela), Biella Da Costa (Venezuela), Laurent Lecuyer (France), Williams Mora (Venezuela). As a percussionist he has played with Venezuelan group “Ensamble Kapicua” and Brazilian musician Vinicius Pereira (São Paulo, Brazil) and with the Venezuelan pianist Alicia Dávila he recorded the track “Moruno pa’ Gerry” playing the Brazilian Tantan for the CD Series “Venezuela Demo”.

In 2009 Só Sambistas recorded his first album called “Só Sambistas” and in 2011 they produced their second album called "Caracas carioca" with ther own music in brazilian genres.

Since 2010 Pedro is the percussionist of venezuelan singers Jakelin Liz, Valentina Becerra, Williams Mora and Rafael Isturiz, playing with different formats: trio, quartet, quintet, guitar, piano, mandolina, bass, and has recorded tracks for new productions of Jakelin Liz, El forever, Daniela Bascopé, Jorge Torres and Julio Arredondo.

In 2014 and 2015 he played with Los Amigos Invisibles during their Acoustic Tour in Venezuela, also played with Masters Henry Martinez, Juan Angel Esquivel and Mariana Serrano in the Barquisimeto Jazz Festival and performed a master class of brazilian percussion at the Caracas en Contratiempo Festival.

Pedro Isea is currently conducting face-to-face and online Brazilian pandeiro workshops from Caracas, Venezuela and continues to make recordings as invited musician and playing in diverse locals and scenarios in the city and writing a music investigation and recommendation blog called ¿Qué dice Petrusco?