Bio Juan Sebastian Larobina was born on July 24, 1970, in San Martin de Los Andes, a village located in the heart of Patagonia. He left Southern Argentina with his family in 1980 to escape the waves of repression that were sweeping across the country, and spent some time in Mexico, where he met the love of his life – music. Larobina landed in Quebec on April 10, 1997, wearing sandals in a full-blown snowstorm, beginning a great new adventure. His discovery of his major musical influences – funk, reggae, rock, pop and Latin music – prompted him to learn all he could about these genres. Before moving to Quebec, Larobina had worked as part of a number of groups on the Mexican music scene, including a recording project with Maluko Samba, a 16-piece Afro-Brazilian band from Chicago. Many of his original songs were recorded and performed by such well-known artists as Yerberos and Stefanie Salas. In Quebec, Larobina participated, in the Composer category, in three different seasons of Festival en chansons de Petite-Vallée, in the Gaspé region, once winning the Public Award. He also took part in a tribute to Daniel Lavoie, performing his Spanish adaptation of Lavoie's "Je pensais pas" with Marie-Claire Séguin. This performance was later broadcast nationwide by the French CBC. Larobina has been part of a number of groups, such as Mex'îles and Chili con samba, with whom he won the Crowd Pleaser Award of the "Chapeau à nos artistes" Festival of the Musée acadien du Québec in Bonaventure, N.B. Juan Larobina recently received a grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec to undertake his ambitious recording project Norte-Sur. Website www.larobina.org