teaching
More than three decades connecting artistic practice, improvisation, composition, tradition and innovation in music education.
Pedro Barboza develops his teaching as a direct extension of his practice as a guitarist and composer. His approach starts from musical experience: listening, analysing, understanding materials and turning them into tools for developing a language of one’s own.
Over more than 30 years he has given masterclasses, workshops, lectures and educational programmes at universities, conservatoires, music schools and international gatherings in Europe, the United States and Latin America. He is the founder of the Escuela Itinerante de Música (Itinerant Music School), a project devoted to training and to exchange between musicians and educators, and his work also extends to entrepreneurship and innovation applied to music learning.
His programmes can be presented independently or combined into visits of one or several days including masterclasses, workshops, meetings with students and concerts.
2027–2028 season now open for booking.
Masterclasses · Workshops · Labs
These programmes are aimed at universities, conservatoires, music schools, festivals and cultural institutions, and can be adapted to the level, duration and context of each programme.
Tres Caminos
Tres Caminos explores how traditional Venezuelan rhythms can become creative material for composition, improvisation and contemporary performance.
Drawing on the music and creative processes of the album Tres Caminos, the session presents different Venezuelan rhythmic traditions — among them Onda Nueva, Merengue Venezolano and Gaita de Tambora — through listening, cultural context, analysis, notation and live demonstration.
One of its central threads is the relationship between rhythm and improvisation: rhythm is approached not only as accompaniment, but as material for building phrasing, developing motifs and generating new musical ideas.
It can be delivered as a masterclass, workshop or creative lab, and expanded with the participation of the Pedro Barboza Trio and a Tres Caminos concert.
See the programme →The art of improvisation
A programme focused on understanding how a melodic line works and turning that knowledge into a practical tool for improvising.
Through the analysis of the function of notes within musical discourse, participants work on stability, movement, main and secondary notes, chord tones, passing notes, tensions, chromaticism and target notes.
The aim is not simply to acquire more vocabulary, but to develop a way of listening, understanding and building improvised lines with intention, direction and musical clarity.
See the programme →Three-note motifs
A lab on the creative possibilities that can emerge from minimal musical materials.
The work begins with diatonic intervals and three-note combinations to generate motifs and recognise different sound families: open and closed triads, structures derived from seventh chords, quartal and quintal voicings, and clusters.
Starting from concepts developed by Jon Damian in The Palette Chart, the session explores how to transform small cells through rhythm, register, articulation, repetition and variation in order to build an improvised vocabulary of one’s own.
See the programme →Rhythm and improvisation in Afro-Venezuelan music
This masterclass explores the relationship between the rhythmic foundations of different Afro-Venezuelan traditions and the construction of an improvised language.
The work starts from listening to and understanding the patterns, accents and characteristics of each rhythm, and then studies how these elements can be incorporated into phrasing and the development of improvised ideas.
Rhythm is approached not only as accompaniment, but as a source of musical material capable of bringing identity, direction and a connection with tradition.
See the programme →Visiting Artist Programs
The different programmes can be combined into Visiting Artist programmes of one or several days, designed according to the academic and artistic interests of each institution.
A programme may include:
Masterclass · Workshop · Creative Lab · Meetings with students · Artist Talk · Concert
This is not a fixed package. Each visit can be built by combining different activities and departments.
A masterclass can work as a standalone activity. A workshop can be integrated into a jazz, improvisation, composition or guitar programme. A residency of several days can connect different areas of study and culminate in an artistic performance.
Education + Performance
An important part of this work consists of building bridges between what is analysed and experienced in the educational space and what later happens on stage.
Tres Caminos, for example, can be presented as a masterclass or lab and linked directly to a concert in which students and audience hear live the same processes of rhythm, composition and improvisation developed during the activity.
This format makes it possible to build proposals that are especially interesting for universities and conservatoires, and also for jazz and world music festivals and cultural programmes with educational or outreach activities.
Selected teaching experience
Pedro Barboza’s educational work has developed alongside his artistic career for more than three decades, combining training, creation and performance in different international contexts.
Berklee College of Music · Boston, USA · 2025
Tres Caminos — workshop with students and concert presenting the project.
Berklee College of Music · Boston, USA · 2018
Masterclass — Rhythm and improvisation in Afro-Venezuelan music.
Montana State University · Bozeman, USA · 2018
One-week programme as Visiting Artist, combining masterclasses, workshops and a concert.
Conservatori Liceu · Barcelona · 2016
Masterclass — Rhythms and improvisation in contemporary Venezuelan music.
AMA Conservatorio · Bogotá · 2016
Jazz clinics — modern harmony and improvisation.
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas · Lima · 2015
Workshop — improvisation and ensemble practice.
EMMAT · Bogotá · 2015
Masterclass — Rhythms and improvisation in Afro-Venezuelan music.
CLAEM VI · São Paulo · 2014
Clinic / performance — Rhythms and improvisation in Afro-Venezuelan music.
His experience also includes educational and artistic activities at institutions and gatherings in Spain, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and Cyprus, as well as work linked to free improvisation, composition, transdisciplinary creation and contemporary music.
A teaching practice tied to creation
Teaching is not separate from artistic practice.
Pedro Barboza’s work as a performer, composer and educator springs from a single search: understanding how musical materials can be transformed into a personal language.
This perspective runs through his programmes on improvisation, rhythm, composition and tradition, and extends to the development of educational projects, new methodologies and innovation processes linked to music learning.
For universities, conservatoires and festivals
Activities can be adapted to different contexts and profiles:
Universities · Conservatoires · Schools of Music · Jazz Programs · Composition Departments · Guitar Departments · Music Education Programs · Festivals · Cultural institutions
Programmes can be delivered in Spanish or English and adjusted in duration, content and level of participation.
Each masterclass or workshop can be booked independently or integrated into a Visiting Artist Program together with other educational activities and concerts.
Bring Pedro Barboza to your institution
Masterclasses, workshops and Visiting Artist programmes can be designed according to the interests, calendar and characteristics of each institution. Activities can be presented independently or combined with concerts and other artistic formats.
2027–2028 season now open for booking.