Barbara Rana, born in 1986 in Diemen, Netherlands, started piano lessons at the age of 10 from Jolanda Cornelissen at the Music School of Diemen. At 16 she took classical piano lessons from Liesbeth Spits at the Music School of Amsterdam. Liesbeth took her to a lesson of a beginning salsa ensemble at the Music School of Amsterdam, led by Titia Bal. It was here that Barbara first came into contact with the amazing music of Latin America. She played there for some years, started listening to salsa music and learned the basics of playing Latin piano.
She got so inspired by this music that she took some lessons from one of Netherlands' finest Latin pianists Marc Bischoff.
In 2005 Barbara enrolled in Europe's only Latin-American music academy: Codarts, the Conservatory in Rotterdam, from which she graduated in 2009.
While at the Conservatory, she was taught by Marc Bischoff, Jan Laurens Hartong, Jos van Kleef, Annaelis de Jong, Nils Fischer. She also followed workshops from Leslie Lopez and took master classes from Andy Gonzalez, Luisito & Roberto Quintero, Giovanni Hidalgo, Richie Flores and Edwin Bonilla amongst others. She got influenced by many artists and music, such as Papo Luca, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ivan Melon Gonzalez, Manolito, Eddie Palmieri, Peruchin, Los Van Van, Issac Delgado, Elio Revé, Grupo Niche, Grupo Galé.
From 2007 till now Barbara played and still plays in several bands like FP Barrio Nuevo, FP La Banda, Charanga 214, Ritmo Continuo, Leticia y su Rumbadama, Quarteto La Piragua, Caribbean Cocktail (a theater tour of a great music & dance show) and regularly plays with Zule Max, Gerardo Rosales, La Misma Gente and others.
Over the years she played with many different bands and on many festivals.
