Juan Mario De la Espriella better known as Juancho De la Espriella is a Colombian musician interpreter of vallenato in accordion. De la Espriella is the current accordionist of Colombian vallenato singer Martin Elias Diaz.
Juan Mario was born in Sincelejo, Sucre on February 26, 1973, son of Carlos Adolfo De la Espriella and Rosario Salcedo Macías. His father was a lawyer for the Colombian Petroleum Company and a politician, who served as governor in charge of the department of Sucre on one occasion. His mother is a native of Barranquilla and a piano player. He inherited his taste for Vallenata music from his father, who had Vallenata parties in his house with artists such as Poncho Zuleta and Emilianito Zuleta from Los Hermanos Zuleta and the minstrel Alejandro Durán, which Juan Mario experienced in his childhood.
His father gave him his first accordion when he was 13 years old, under the condition that he study but keep music as a hobby, however Juan Mario would not study a university degree to dedicate himself completely to being a professional accordion player.
Juan Mario married Dolly Cáliz, from whose union there are two children; Salvatore and Manuela De la Espriella Cáliz.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juancho_De_la_Espriella) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode)