Sebastian Guerrero ’94,

Sebastian Guerrero is Pennington’s Alumni of the Month for the month of April. Sebastian continues to be active in the life of The Pennington School. Most recently Sebastian joined The Paul Winter Consort on stage with The Pennington School Chorus at Trenton’s War Memorial in a concert to celebrate Earth Mass.

A percussion specialt, Sebastian was drawn to percussion instruments and rhythms of his birthplace, Brazil at an early age. His interest in Brazilian percussion took him to Salvador, Bahía, Brazil to study with Afro-Brazilian masters from the dance and drum troupe, “Balet Folclórico da Bahía”. His passion for African Diaspora music also led him to Perú to study the unique percussive instruments played in the Afro-Peruvian tradition. In a small farming village off the coast, Sebastian had the honor of living, studying and performing with the Ballumbrosio family, Peru’s foremost authority on the Afro-Peruvian tradition. He has lived in Perú for extended periods studying the art of the Peruvian cajón (box drum) and the unique tap dance tradition called zapateo. In 2003 Sebastian was made an initiated member and dancer of the historic zapateo group “Los Negritos del Carmen”. He has danced for the past five years in the important Christmas celebrations in the surrounding villages of Chincha, Perú.

Sebastian has also traveled to Cuba to study with members of “Danza Contemporanea de Cuba” as well as with “Grupo Afro-Cuba de Matanzas”. In New York, he has continued his studies with various Afro-Cuban musicians including masters such as Roman Diaz, Michael Spiro, and Regino Jimenez. He has performed Cuban music with ”Los Afortunados”, “Oriki Omi Odara”, and his own group “Grupo Ara Oko”. Sebastian was awarded the 2001-2002 Folklife Apprenticeship Grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for the study of Afro-Cuban ceremonial drumming.