Bio

Alejandro Arenas is a versatile musician, composer, producer, and educator. Born in Medellin, Colombia he began his musical path playing Flamenco and Classical guitar. He picked up the electric bass while he attended the Colegio Andino/Deutsche Schule in Bogota where he performed in the Salsa and Andean Music ensembles as well as the school’s orchestra. During his High School years he performed with different independent bands with styles ranging from Salsa to Blues to Rock to Heavy Metal.

Upon graduating High School he moved to Gainesville, FL. There he worked as a freelance musician playing with bands of different genres such as Reggae, Jazz and Funk. He earned an A.A in Music Studies from Santa Fe College. His growing love for Jazz drove him to learn to play the upright bass and to get a B.M. in Jazz Performance in 2008, and a M.M in Jazz Performance, both from the University of South Florida.

In 2009 Alejandro became adjunct professor of bass at St. Petersburg College for the Music Industry Recording Arts (M.I.R.A) program, a state of the art commercial music program with an emphasis in production, performance and entrepreneurship. 

In 2006, he co-founded La Lucha, an award winning Jazz ensemble based in the Tampa Bay area. To date, they have released 7 albums which feature many of Alejandro’s compositions and arrangements.

In 2020 he co-founded the World Music ensemble Orilla with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ona Kirei. They have released 2 albums to date. 

As a freelance bassist, Alejandro has performed countless concerts and numerous Jazz festivals backing artists like Ken Peplowski, Randy Brecker, Roxy Coss, Diego Figueiredo, Mary Stallings, Russell Malone, Renee Fleming, Terell Stafford, Houston Person, Whitney James, Marty Morell, Antonio Adolfo, Nate Najar, Dick Hyman, Valerie Gillespie, Buster Cooper, and many more.