Diego Fernando Gomez Coy

Born in Santiago de Cali, Colombia on November 19th, of 1967, Diego began his musical career in 1986 at the “Instituto Popular de Cultura de Armenia” in Quindio, Colombia. In 1990 he started his University Studies where he enrolled in the Music School for four semesters.
Since then, Diego has engaged himself in an ample research of the creation and execution of Andean wind instruments such as the quena, and the zampoña.
In 1997 he was invited to represent his native country, Colombia and participate with “Grupo Juglares” in the festival “Fiesta Latina” held in South Carolina. That same year he played together with his new band members of “Viva la Musica” in Hiroshima, Japan at the famous Flower Festival. He also performed with “Viva la Musica” as member and director at the Festival of Tolerance held in Prague, Check Republic.

Diego recently joined “Grupo Samay” and now resides in Seattle, Washington. In Grupo Samay he plays the quena, quenacho and the zampoña amongst other woodwinds, and several percussion instruments that are indigenous to countries in the Andean Region.