Manuel Obregón, a Central American Artist, will be performing a Piano Concerto during Wisdom and Wellbeing Multi-Faculty Week 4: Purpose, Engaged Buddhism and Eco-Activism | February 1 – 8, 2025.

 

Musicician, composer and producer, Manuel Obregón has focused his creative work on the Central American music and its relationship to nature and the environment. In his work, Obregón has achieved a synthesis between academic training, tradition and experimentation. This evolution that can be traced in his solo recordings and in the various music groups he has founded, as well as in the projects he has developed such as La Orquesta de la Papaya and La Orquesta del Río Infinito. He is also founder of Papaya Music, a music company formed by various artists, technicians and producers intended to rescue and spread the Central American music. Manuel Obregón has numerous recordings which include more than 20 solo albums of his original compositions and as many as producer and guest musician; these work has earned him national and international recognition along his carreer. He has been granted several awards from the Costa Rican Association of Musical Composers and Authors (ACAM).

International awards include:

The Music Critics Award for Best concert of the Year in New Orleans in 2000.

New Orleans International Honorary Citizen in 2002.

Best Original Music at the Cremona Film Festival in Italy, for the soundtrack of the Costa Rican movie “Password, una mirada en la oscuridad.” 2002.

 As a diplomat he has been cultural attaché to the Costa Rican Government in different countries. Minister of Culture and Youth from 2010 – 2014 and was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Culture, by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Costa Rica from 2013 -2015.

On June 2015 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of York, for his tireless efforts to protect the world’s rainforests and for his exceptional accomplishments as a musician.

 Some of his most famous records are: Simbiosis, piano and rainforest, Piano Malango and Mangoré.