Fully bilingual (English - Spanish) and originally from the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, Ángel Candelaria started playing guitar at the age of 9, when his parents enrolled him in private guitar lessons. His interest in music kept growing, and soon he found himself playing in his home church and several local bands, as well as composing his first songs.
After graduating from high school in 1995, his passion for music led him to enroll in the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, graduating in 1999 with a bachelor’s in Music Education. Soon after, he enrolled in the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus, graduating in 2002 with a master’s degree in Educational Computing.
As a professional musician, Angel had the opportunity to work with international Caribbean artists such as composer/singer José Nogueras, Grammy-nominated salsa singer Jerry Rivera, Latin Grammy-nominated singer Anais, and Univisión Puerto Rico’s reality show Objetivo: Fama. Being active in Puerto Rico’s Contemporary Christian music scene, he also had the opportunity to work with René González, Edwin Cotto, Noemí Luz, Abner Ávila, Marco Barrientos, and José Flores, among others.
As an educator, Ángel has more than 25 years of experience teaching music, both as a private instructor from 1997 and as a music teacher in the public school system of Puerto Rico from 2000 - 2017. He has published several music books, such as Teoría de la Música: Niveles 1 – 3 and Lectura Musical para Guitarra: Nivel 1, all available on Amazon and other online stores. He’s also the founder of Cursos de Guitarra Pro, an online guitar courses program for Hispanic Worship Guitar players.