B.M. in Classical Guitar, Manhattan School of Music; M.M. in Jazz Studies, Purchase College, SUNY

Guitar

Faculty since 2026

Bronx, New York

Sergio Ramirez is a Bronx-born guitarist, bandleader, and educator whose playing moves between the
classical tradition and the jazz lineage, shaped by Afro-Mexican and Afro-Caribbean rhythmic
vocabulary. He is featured on Arturo O’Farrill’s Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley, a 2026 GRAMMY
nominee for Best Latin Jazz Album, and has performed at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, SFJAZZ,
Symphony Space, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Perelman Performing Arts Center, and Lincoln Center’s
GlobalFEST 2024. He has recorded and shared stages with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz
Orchestra, the Villalobos Brothers, Jorge Glem, and Edmar Castaneda, and has performed under Jon
Faddis, Michael Philip Mossman, and David DeJesus at Dizzy’s, Birdland, and The Jazz Forum.

Sergio studied classical guitar with David Starobin at the Manhattan School of Music and jazz with
Pasquale Grasso at Purchase College, working closely with Adam Birnbaum and Noriko Ueda. He leads
the Sergio Ramirez Quartet, performing original compositions alongside reimagined standards drawn
from underrepresented voices in the jazz tradition. He serves as a teaching artist with the Afro-Latin Jazz
Alliance in New York City public schools and has maintained a private studio since 2020, teaching in
English or Spanish.

“My teaching philosophy is simple: nothing is impossible. From Bach partitas to funk songs to bebop and
chord melody, it is all achievable and beautiful. Beyond learning songs, pieces, and tunes, I teach students
to internalize music, embody it, and become an extension of it. I push curiosity and creativity in my
lessons, and my overarching goal is to give students the tools and skills they need to find their own place
in the vast universe that is music, learning to trust their instincts and their individual voice.”