Armando Vergara is a Cuban/Puerto Rican Trombonist, Educator, Composer, Bandleader, from South Florida, currently based in NYC. He holds a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Jazz Arts from The Manhattan School of Music, as well as a Masters of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Armando has collaborated with many world renowned musicians such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Sunny Jain, Bobby Sanabria, Arturo O’Farill, Jon Faddis, Paquito D’Rivera, Maria Schnieder, and Sean Jones to name a few. He is a member of the critically acclaimed North Indian Bhangra-Fusion band Red Baraat, and has performed internationally at popular concert halls and music festivals, including Carnegie Hall, Montreux Jazz Festival, The Blue Note NYC, Umbria Jazz Festival, Birdland, SFJAZZ, Lincoln Center, North Sea Jazz Festival and more. In 2022, Armando won the American Trombone Workshop National Jazz Trombone competition in Washington D.C. and recorded with the U.S. Army Blues. Armando is the founder/creator of ‘Mestizos’ which is an ensemble that exudes a unique, yet familiar melodic and rhythmic expression of the Afro-Latinx sound. ‘Mestizos’ adds a new wavelength to the Latin music/Latin jazz scene in NYC, but also doubles as a vehicle for Latin jazz/music education.
