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 Ernesto
Valenzuela was born August 26, 1975, in Los Angeles, California to
a musical family. Following Ernesto's early enthusiasm for singing,
he discovered that percussion is where his passion lay. But it wasn't
until he saw Carlos Santana's world class percussion
section live as
a kid that he completely fell in love with Latin percussion.
In 1996 Ernesto, Arturo and Ruben Valenzuela co-founded La Orquesta
Primo in San Diego with the help of Manny Rivera Cepeda (Familia Cepeda
de P.R.). While with Orquesta Primo, Ernesto had the opportunity to
share the stage with El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Tito Nieves, Manny
Oquendo and Conjunto Libre, Oscar DeLeon, Irakere, Cubanismo, Albita,
Poncho Sanchez and others. Orquesta Primo has also recorded several
live morning news shows for N.B.C. and performed at various fairs and
festivals including Del Mar Fair, Annual Puerto Rican Day Festivals,
International Student Fair, Cox Film Festival and Gas Lamp Quarter
street scenes and venues among others.
Ernesto's credentials include conguero / coroista / co-Founder of
Orquesta Primo from 1996 to 2002, and he is now currently a freelance
conguero / bongocero / coroista. Some of the noted artists Ernesto
has accompanied include Azuquita y su Melao, Tito
Puente Jr., Wilson "Saoco" Mayoma,
Ommy Cardona, Joe Lopez, Yari More, Rudy Regalado y Chevere, Octavio
Figueroa y La Combinacion, Orquesta Pa' Goza' de Phil Robinson, Orquesta
Guarare', Orquesta Macondo and many others.
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