Alex Mercado, Orquesta Moderna & Rosino Serrano
Biography Alex Mercado, Orquesta Moderna & Rosino Serrano
Alex Mercado
Pianist, Composer, and Writer. Renowned for his astonishing technique and boundless imagination, Alex Mercado is acclaimed for his ability to craft vibrant soundscapes that have resonated with critics and audiences alike—both in his native Mexico and internationally.
Regarded as one of the leading figures of contemporary Mexican jazz, he has taken his music to stages across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, establishing himself as one of the most original and profound voices on the current scene.
Alex Mercado has recorded ten albums as a bandleader, including Perlas de Granizo* (2024), Mis Versos en Canciones* (2023), Poesía entre Notas (2021), Exilio (2020), and Symbiosis (2014)— an album praised by DownBeat magazine.
He has performed at highly prestigious venues and festivals, such as the North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Prambanan Jazz Festival (Indonesia), Lille Piano Festival (France), Turner Sims (UK), PAP Jazz (Haiti), Singapore Jazz in July, Sibiu Jazz Festival (Romania), and Bray Piano Festival (Ireland), as well as jazz clubs throughout France, Belgium, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States.
In Mexico, he has performed at the country’s major festivals—including the Festival Internacional Cervantino, Festival del Centro Histórico, and the Festival Blanco y Negro at CENART—and made his debut at the Main Hall of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 2019.
He is a Yamaha Artist and served as a member of the National System of Creators (Sistema Nacional de Creadores) under FONCA from 2021 to 2025.
In 2009, he was commissioned to create the orchestral arrangements for the opening of Sir Elton John’s concert at Chichén Itzá, where he also performed as a soloist alongside the Yucatán Symphony Orchestra.
Beyond his musical endeavors, he is the author of two books: Arte, conciencia y vida (Art, Consciousness, and Life) and El sublime proceso del lenguaje musical (The Sublime Process of Musical Language), in which he explores musical creation from a philosophical and humanistic perspective.
Rosino Serrano
A multiple Latin Grammy Award nominee, Rosino Serrano was born in Madrid, Spain, and has been an active figure in the Mexican music scene since the early 1980s. He studied piano at the Madrid and Málaga Conservatories, the National School of Music at UNAM, and the Vida y Movimiento School of Music. He is also a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he specialized in Jazz Composition.
Early in his career, he was a member of the legendary groups Banda Elástica and Rumba Abierta, and collaborated closely with singer Betsy Pecanins.
Either as a pianist, composer, arranger, musical director, or producer, Serrano has worked with some of the most prominent figures in contemporary Ibero-American popular music, including Eugenia León, Armando Manzanero, Carlos Santana, Ivan Lins, Rocío Dúrcal, Aida Cuevas, Tania Libertad, Camila, Sin Bandera, Niña Pastori, Kalimba, Óscar Chávez, El Tri, Emmanuel, and Mijares, among many others. Many of the productions in which he has participated have achieved widespread popularity.
Serrano has written more than 400 arrangements for such artists and a wide range of ensembles, including MSM Jazz Orchestra, Bobby Sanabria Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band, Big Band Jazz de México, Zinco Big Band, PostClassical Ensemble, Ónix Ensemble, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestra, Orquesta de RTVE Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa , Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico,, Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes, Orquesta Típica de la Ciudada de México, and Banda Sinfónica del Estado de Oaxaca.
He has composed music for over 30 films, including Santitos, Walkout, Adán y Eva (todavía), and The Crime of Father Amaro, the latter nominated for an Academy Award. For his film work, he has received the Mayahuel Award and has been nominated for the Ariel Award. As a producer, he has worked on more than 40 recordings for both independent and major labels, including Sony Music, BMG, EMI, Universal Music Group, and Milan Records, spanning genres from jazz, rock, and pop to Latin American traditional music, opera, chamber, and symphonic music.
During his residence in New York (1997–2004), he worked with production companies Big Rumble Music and Razorhead Music, creating music for major advertising campaigns for brands such as Budweiser, Miller, Coors, Jack Daniel’s, Panasonic, Samsung, Chrysler, Disney, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and USPS. He also served as musical director of the Thalía Spanish Theatre.
Since 2012, Serrano has been music director and composer for the Los Angeles–based Latino Theater Company, with stage credits including A Mexican Trilogy: An American Story and the musical Destiny of Desire. He continues to serve as musical director and pianist for Eugenia León, with whom he has collaborated since the 1990s, producing several albums and touring internationally.
With more than 35 years of teaching experience, he has served as academic director at DIM Music School and currently leads his own Composers Workshop. He is a professor at the Faculty of Music at UNAM, Tecnológico de Monterrey, and Conservatorio de Música Contemporánea. Since 2015, he has been a member of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators. In 2018, he founded ORQUESTAMODERNA.
