"During the early stages of my career as a percussion student in the Dominican Republic, getting good quality instruments was not as accessible as it was when I got here to the United States to study. I remember that in 2014, one of my first purchases as a college student was a Black Swamp Chromium 25/Silver Tambourine, and after playing the tambourine for the very first time, I just haven't been able to hear anything else but BSP tambourines as my preferred sound. BSP tambourines have the response, warmth, body, and timber for all my percussion needs. I have many more stories for when I bought more BSP tambourines, woodblock and castanets, but we will be here all day, that shows how much I love and respect BSP gear"
Jean Carlo Ureña González is a versatile performer, composer, and educator from the Dominican Republic whose work bridges Western classical and Caribbean musical traditions. He is the founder and co-director of ATEZA’O, the first Dominican percussion ensemble to blend these styles, and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Percussion at Lawrence University. He has performed with ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra of Santo Domingo, Jackson Symphony, and Toledo Symphony, and has been featured at New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music series. A graduate of The Hartt School and the University of Michigan—where he became the first Dominican to earn a DMA in percussion—Jean Carlo has received numerous accolades, including winning the Hartt School’s Paranov Concerto Competition and being the first Dominican to perform a marimba concerto with the national orchestra. He has collaborated with renowned artists such as Gustavo Dudamel, Paquito D’Rivera, and Alison Balsom, and appears on the GRAMMY-nominated album Sila: The Breath of the World by John Luther Adams. Deeply committed to advancing percussion literature, he has commissioned new works from Dominican composers and currently serves as interim president of the PAS Dominican Republic chapter.