Polo Vallejo Garcia-Maurino

• PhD in Music Sciences (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, CNRS Paris), Pedagogue & Composer
• Master Professor at the 'Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía' (ESMRS, Madrid)
• Researcher and Scientific Committee Member at the National Folklore Center in Tbilisi (Georgia)

He was trained at the 'Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid' (RCSMM) where he obtained the Higher Degree in Piano, and at the ‘Orff-Institut’ and ‘Mozarteum University’ in Salzburg, where he was graduated in Music Education ('Special Course') and he studied Composition respectively. He has collaborated as well with other music institutions such as the ‘Sibelius Academy’ in Helsinki (Finland) or the McGill University in Montreal (Canada), among others. Pedagogical Director of the project 'Barrios Orquestados' in the Canary Islands, he was a Board Member at the Carl Orff Foundation in Diessen, Munich, between 2009 and 2021.

Since 1988 he has carried out experimental works in Africa, and since 2006 in Georgia (Caucasus), always related to Vocal Polyphonies and the Musical Knowledge Transmission mechanisms. His works have been awarded in different Academic and Artistic categories: among others, he obtained the Summa Cum Laude-Extraordinary Award (UCM) and the Humanistic CRUMA recognition for his Doctoral Thesis Musical World and Systematics of the Wagogo people from Tanzania. In 2017 he won the 'Spanish National Edition Award' (‘Art Books Category', for his publication “It Ends when I get there” (Field Notebooks, Tanzania 1995-2015), as well as numerous International Film Festivals Prizes for his documentary film ‘Africa The Beat’. He has published a CD-Book entitled ‘Kédougou’, the result of a project that links research, musical education and social integration, carried out in Senegal, fruit of the collaboration between African teachers and students around the Children’s Repertoires of the Bedik, Bassari and Malinké communities from the eastern region of this country, all thanks to the support received by the Carl Orff Foundation and the Goethe Institut in Dakar. 

Scriptwriter and presenter of didactic concerts for all audiences, he is currently finalizing the publication of all his teaching materials created and applied during more than 30 years teaching around the world. In collaboration with the Drumming Grupo de Percusâo from Porto (Portugal), he is finalizing the edition of a DVD dedicated to his complete percussion works. 

For Polo Vallejo, education, creation, research and performance, occupies a common place linked to motivation, arts and emotion.