The musical carreer of Felipe León
Son of engineer parents and born in Tuluá; in the heart of Valle del Cauca, Felipe began his musical career at the age of 12, in 2010, when he enrolled in acoustic guitar classes in one of the programs taught by the Comfandi compensation fund. It's there where his love and interest in music begins to emerge. In 2013, he continued his guitar lessons at Escuela Musical Armonía, under the guidance of guitarist Weizmann Maya with whom he took his first steps on the electric guitar. Being part of this school, he is invited by Diego Castaño, a musician and one of the owners of the school, to be a guitarist in a musical group for different local events of the Cruising for Jesus congregation and, at the same time, is part of the representative music group of his high school. In 2014, the interest arises to venture into the electric bass with his teacher Diego Castaño, making this his main instrument and with which he would be part of different local musical groups.
With the intention of continuing his musical training, in 2015 he decided to start a technical career in musical knowledge and interpretation at the Escuela de Artes Integradas Talento Humano, under the direction of Gustavo Adolfo Jaramillo, renowned musician and conductor from the Valle del Cauca. There he manages to expand his musical knowledge, venture into other instruments such as the piano and the alto saxophone. with the last one he has the opportunity to perform and share the stage with the Valle del Cauca Departmental Band, being part of the Talento Humano Band. His technical training in music earned him, in 2017, to pass the admission exam and begin his professional carreer in Music with emphasis in Musical Production at the ICESI University, beacause of that, he moved to Cali in 2018.
Pursuing his professional career, he continued his lessons in electric bass under the guidance of Jorge Herrera, director of the renowned orchestra "La Misma Gente". At the same time, he attends different university classes taught by a group of teachers and musicians from Cali, among whom are: Carlos Andrés Bonilla, Julio Ramírez, Daniel Gutiérrez, Ary Álvarez, Mayra Franco, Jorge Corrales "Pocholo", Felipe Varela, Andrés Rodríguez "El Cacique", Nabil Bechara, among others. In 2019, Felipe takes his first steps in music production under the guidance of Manuel Restrepo "Aurora Mastering", with whom he attends his first classes on production, use of DAW (ProTools), introduction to microphones, recording, speakers and audio consoles. In this way, he discovered his passion for audio from the point of view of an engineer and producer, which led him to work as a FOH engineer, radio mixer and recording engineer at different events in his hometown, thanks to the trust of his friend Daniel Jaramillo, who was in charge of the audio set up for those events.
That same year, he attended his first mixing classes with Jorge Díaz, a renowned recording and mixing engineer who has worked with artists of national and international recognition such as Carlos Vives, Kronos, Helenita Vargas, Sergio Vargas, Grupo Niche, among others. and with whom, by the beginning of 2020, he would start his first recording classes at the recording studios of the ICESI University. Due to the health emergency caused by COVID-19, Felipe is forced to return to his hometown and continue his classes remotely, acquiring equipment to continue developing his skills and conditioning his space with homemade elements to make recordings of the best quality possible for his university and personal projects.
In 2021, the ICESI University reopens its doors for some of its students and classes that have a high face-to-face component. This allows Felipe to resume his recording classes with Jorge Díaz and become part of the group of Recording Studio Monitors at ICESI University. In this position, he is able to expand his knowledge in the operation of high-level recording studios by attending recording sessions for student projects within the university and having access to audio equipment such as the API 2448 and SSL Matrix2 consoles that allow him to improve his knowledge of audio recording. His performance and interest in the area earned him consideration by Carlos Andrés Bonilla, director of the 312 Creative Production Center, and by Germán Rodríguez, manager of the recording studios at ICESI University, as a recording assistant for different exclusive projects for 312 Creative Production Center that allowed him to collaborate with artists such as Manuel García-Orozco "Chaco", Rubén Rodríguez, Caliche Sabogal, Karol G Queens (Band of the singer Karol G), Cantares del Pacífico, Ruca and El Quinde de Barbacoas, Lucio Feulliet and Briela Ojeda.
That same year, Felipe participated as a FOH engineer for different events in his hometown Tuluá, such as the “La Cariñosa” Radio Trios Festival, the 62nd edition of the Santa Cecilia Festival, and the 3-2-1 Concert, where various former participants of the renowned reality show "Yo Me Llamo" performed, including Yo Me Llamo: Pimpinela, Yo Me Llamo: Víctor Manuelle, Yo Me Llamo: Hugo Rojas and the finalist Yo Me Llamo: Héctor Lavoe.
By 2022, Felipe obtains his first credits in musical projects gestated that year and the previous one at ICESI's recording studios. At the same, he worked as FOH engineer for the event Orchestrating Happiness by the group Sin Seriedad, a project directed by Gustavo Adolfo Jaramillo on the fields of psychology and music, and which was held inside the "Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal" auditorium of the UCEVA University. In June of that same year, Felipe got in touch with Sebastián Laverde, recording engineer nominated for a Latin Grammy (Sanz – Alejandro Sanz), percussionist, producer and director of Jazztone Studios, to carry out his professional internship as a requirement to complete their university studies.
So in September 2022, he moves to Valencia in Spain, to be part of the Jazztone Studios team, a place that allows him to improve his skills in the field of professional recording outside of the educational environment under the guidance of Sebastián Laverde. During his internship, he manages to easily adapt to the capabilities of the studio, available microphones and the use of the Audient ASP 4816 console. In addition, he manages to work with renowned artists, producers and engineers such as Manuel Tomás, Chipi Chacón, Pacho Flores, Perico Sambeat, Carlos Martín, Lazara Cachao, Plena 79 Salsa Orchestra, among others, completing his internship successfully in January 2023 and returning to his hometown.