Jorge Luis Garcell Santana, a distinguished Cuban guitarist, was born on June 19, 1971, in the Cuban province of Holguín. His professional training was influenced by the important Cuban maestros Rubén González, Miguel Bonachea, Efraín Amador, and Leo Brouwer, as well as by the foreign maestros Marcos Socías of Spain and S. Fukuda of Japan.

At the age of 13, he earned his earliest accolade, winning First Prize and Special Prize for his interpretation of Cuban music at the Amadeo Roldán Competition for Music Students in 1984; a title he would later repeat in 1988 and 1990.

Jorge Luis Garcell was a member of the Havana Guitar Ensemble, with which he recorded two albums of contemporary Cuban music. As a guitar soloist, he has performed in major concert halls in Cuba, as well as on National Radio and Television. He teaches high school at the Guillermo Tomás Conservatory (San Juan Bosco No. 57, Guanabacoa, Havana) and also performs popular music. His personal repertoire includes works by leading guitar composers such as F. Tarrega, M.M. Ponce, A.B. Mangoré, J. Rodrigo, Leo Brouwer, among others.

In addition to the aforementioned awards, he also won the Special Prize for his performance of a Renaissance-style piece and another by a Cuban composer at the National Guitar Competition held in the Cuban capital in 1994.

In 1995, Jorge Luis Garcell graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) (1110 Calle 120 between 9th and 13th, Cubanacán, Playa, Havana) in Havana, working in the class of Maestro Jesús Ortega. Four years later, along with musicians who had graduated from this institution, he founded the Contrastes quartet. This group was a blend of classical and popular Cuban music, composed with instruments from the guitar and percussion families. With this group, he recorded two albums: the first, called Complicidad, featuring previously unreleased boleros by Carlos Puebla; and the other, Sentimientos Encontrados, with Mexican troubadour Jesús Domínguez, at Estudios Abdala and PM RECORDS, respectively.

He has been a professor at the National School of Music, head of the Strings Department at the Guillermo Tomás Conservatory (San Juan Bosco No. 57, Guanabacoa, Havana), and head of the Guitar Department at the Manuel Saumell School (Calle F No. 660, Vedado, Plaza de la Revolución, Havana). He is a member of the Musicians Association of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and belongs to the National Center for Concert Music.

Jorge Luis Garcell has had the opportunity to perform at various international venues, including the Baku Conservatory of Music in Azerbaijan; the Shakespeare Forum in Mexico City; and the House of Sculptures in Xalapa, Mexico; as well as at the Tondela Cultural Center and the Auditorium of the Estoril Congress Center in Lisbon, Portugal.