Federico Rincón

Federico Rincón (he/him) is a vocalist, improviser and composer from Bogotá, Colombia. A natural singer-songwriter who has produced a catalog of songs for his own performances as well as for other artists, blending elements of Colombian and Latin American folk music with jazz, rock, and pop.

Rincón is completing a degree in Music Therapy at the University of Iowa. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music (with a major in composition and jazz singing). He has more than 7 years of experience in music education for children and teenagers, mostly having private sessions at a music studio in my hometown. He describes himself as charismatic, musical, and efficient. He is highly organized and productivity-oriented. He uses a bone-anchored hearing aid and works as a research assistant at the music and hearing loss lab within the Music Therapy department under the supervision of Dr. Hae Sun Kim.

Federico considers himself a cyborg since he is a hearing-impaired musician whose perception of sound changed after receiving an osseointegrated hearing aid in 2020. This vital encounter that divided his life in two: a monaural stage and a stereo stage, made him reflect on ways to produce specialized music for people with different hearing abilities. Being a “hybrid listener” (having one natural and one artificial ear) made him aware of the historic neglect that the music industry has for people with different sensory perceptions. For his undergraduate thesis project, he proposed conducting a study of his auditory perception with respect to certain musical parameters in the production of his own record. He also created an inclusive display in which non-disabled musicians performed alongside “impaired” artists with and without implants, conveying a message about breaking down barriers between the non-disabled and the disabled.