Pianist, composer, arranger and producer.
Roberto Alain Fonseca Cortés was born in Havana in 1975. At an early age he familiarized with music; first, with percussion and then with the piano. His father played the drums, her mother was a professional singer and his brothers Emilio Valdés (drums) and Jesús Valdés Jr. (piano) are two young musicians of great international prestige.
Roberto Fonseca studied at the "Guillermo Tomás" School of Music in the Guanabacoa municipality in the capital and, later on, he got his degree as pianist and piano and ensemble music professor at the National School of Art.
His first public presentation was during the Jazz Festival in Havana in 1991. He also performed in other Jazz Festivals as pianist with groups representing the schools of art, specially with the "Agua pura" group which, in 1995, was selected to participate in the opening ceremony of the renowned jazz event in Cuba where i
t attained a resounding success.
In 1997, Roberto Fonseca, together with the multiple-instrument player Javier Zalba, founded the Temperamento group and the following year recorded his first compact disc entitled "En el comienzo" for the EGREM label. This CD received the 1999 Cubadisco Award to the best jazz record.
His success encouraged María Elena Mendiola and EGREM label to make the first Roberto Fonseca`s record as soloist launched on the market under the title "Tiene que ver"; the cha cha chá entitled "Para que no hables", one of the pieces included in his first work, received the highest award in the category of popular music during the Latin American and Caribbean Music Tribune (TRIMALCA) contest held in Havana in the year 2000.
Once again, his second CD entitled "Elengo" combines the Latin jazz, the drum and bass, the hip-hop, the urban music and the Afro-Cuban rhythms. He has also recorded under the Ahora Corporation label.
Roberto Fonseca prefers jazz because, in his own opinion, this genre allows him to develop his imagination thus enriching the harmonic part of the themes, though he can perform from a standard complex jazz music to a bolero, since the fusion has always characterized the repertoire of this artist who travels through music breaking schemes, integrating and experimenting.
Roberto Fonseca, classified as an excellent pianist and composer, has been acclaimed all over the world and has been able to consolidate his work in Canada, Spain, Colombia and France, among many other countries.
He has performed together with Chucho Valdés, José Luis Cortés, Roy Hargrove, George Benson, Frank Emilio, Papo Luca, Giovanny Hidalgo, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Rubén González, among many others.
He has recorded with Buena Vista Social Club and has performed on the most well-known stages together with this famous orchestra made up by musicians from different generations. Likewise, he forms part of one of the best rhythmic sections in the world. After enjoying his piano accompaniment to Omara Portuondo or Ibrahim Ferrer, the international media reported that Rubén González`s legacy was everlasting, but his successor is already here among us: Roberto Fonseca.
