About Rodrigo

Rodrigo Santic originated his formal music studies at age 15, taking up classical guitar and later focusing on music composition for three years in his native Santiago, Chile.

But he realized the saxophone was his passion and went on to spend the next decade at the University of Chile’s Music Conservatory studying classical saxophone and devoting himself to chamber music.

His musical success soon started taking shape. In 1997 he joined the Cuarteto de Saxofones Villafruela, a sax quartet which has showcased its classic and contemporary musical skills through live performances and radio and television appearances in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. The group released a two-disc album called “Saxofones en Latinoamérica,” a repertoire of Latin American music and “Saxofón en Concierto, compositores chilenos 1988-1998,” which consists of contemporary works by Chilean composers.

Rodrigo also played for the musical score featured in the short film “Miradas del pasado.”

Throughout this time, Rodrigo performed with various orchestras, including Juvenil de Santiago, National Youth Symphony, Symphony of Chile and the Santiago Philharmonic.

His musical accomplishments were further recognized when he received scholarships from the Andes Foundation in 1999 and the Friends of the Santiago Municipal Theater Corporation in 2002.

Then the countless hours spent in the conservatory’s basement paid off when Rodrigo earned a Bachelor of Arts with a focus on music performance for saxophone in 2001, followed by another degree in saxophone performance in 2003, both with highest honors.

Yet jazz continued to beckon him, even taking on a parallel role with his classical studies. He participated in various international jazz festivals as a member of Los Andes Big Band and jazz groups. In 2003, he was the guest saxophonist for Grupo Lucybell in the XLIV Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar.

Once he was done with his studies at the conservatory, Rodrigo left his home country and set out to travel the world, accompanied by his saxophone and the goal of developing further as a musician. The next few years took him to Bologna, Italy and Barcelona, Spain, where he studied jazz. After returning to Chile, he was sponsored by the Chilean government’s Ministry of Foreign Relations for a series of musical workshops and shows in the San Francisco Bay Area with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano de Saxofones.

Since 2007 Rodrigo has been performing with various jazz, salsa and merengue bands throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. It was in San Francisco where the concept of his first Album Cyclos and its compositions were born.