Internationally-acclaimed percussionist & music producer, Dr. Benedicto “Benny” Maldonado, is a polymath creative professional known for his musical artistry as a multi-directional entertainer possessing fluidity and expressivity as an ethno-percussionist, drummer, vocalist, dancer, comedian, and audio engineer. He is a 16th Annual Latin GRAMMY® Award Nominee for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album – the highest award in the music industry – and is the percussionist on performance-based recordings that have garnered 20 DownBeat® Magazine SM Awards – the highest award for jazz and commercial music education – for Small Jazz Group, Latin Group, and Blues/Pop/Rock Group categories, respectively. As CEO of BM Music Enterprises, Dr. Maldonado’s cross-genre artistry as both a percussionist and recording engineer have been utilized on numerous accoladed albums and with top-industry musical artists within various albums such as Alex Acuña, Mister G, Eduardo “Gualo” Jaramillo, Dr. José Valentino, Claudia Acuña, Bruno Miranda, and Jim Walker, just to name a few. He is equally fluent in Latin music, Jazz, House, R&B, Hip Hop, Funk-Fusion, Pop, EDM, and World music.
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His work can be heard on the albums: (1) “Ahora Más Que Nunca”, (2) “Ritmo y Rima”, (3) “We Are One: An Exploration of Latin American Music”, (4) “I Make You Want To Move”, (5) “R&B and Pop Hits in Salsa”, (6) “A Walk With God”, and many more. In Summer 2018, his single, “Suelta Tu Celular (Let Go Of Your Cell Phone)” was released on all digital music platforms, and gained high traction on social media platforms and was placed in the Top 100 Salsa Charts for a season.

As an enthusiastic performer in jazz music, tropical music, commercial music, and musical theater, Dr. Maldonado has collaborated in the past with Dave Valentin, Cano Estremera, Eddie Santiago, Hector Tricoche, Roberto Roena, Brenda K Starr, Pete”El Conde” Rodriguez, Paquito Guzman, Quique Domenech, and Nacho Sanabria, Lisette Melendez, Johnny Rivera, and the Sarasota Theater Company, just to name a few. Television appearances include Telemundo, Univision, CBS, and NBC. In 2014, Dr. Maldonado participated as extra in the Hollywood feature comedy film, “Sex Ed”, which was directed by Isaac Feder and available on NETFLIX and Amazon Prime.
In 2016, Dr. Maldonado received a Doctorate of Christian Music (D.C.M.) degree from Truth and Mercy Institute for his contributions an ethnodoxological scholar and educator who has utilized his gifts to help, empower, and inspire lower socio-economic status communities to progress in their academic and vocational pursuits. His mandate is to encourage and cultivate aspiring performing artists to embrace their innate gifting of music to make the world a better place. Dr. Maldonado’s research interests and dissertation focuses on teaching church musical groups how to incorporate musical elements and rhythms that are unique to the populace’s cultural identity within American genres of music as a means of preserving cultural heritage and promoting cultural inclusivity among society.
Frequently, Dr. Maldonado travels with his family-based music ministry called “By The Spirit Only”, which travels to various churches across the nation presenting Christian musical worship utilizing Puerto Rican rhythms, here he Produced, Engineered and recorded on the latest production of “By The Spirit Only, Solo Por El Espíritu”