Grew up listening to porro bands and traditional pipers from Cereté and San Pelayo, vallenato groups such as Alejo Durán's and compositions and arrangements of his father Francisco Zumaqué, who was director of the Banda Departmental de Córdoba and popular orchestra Los Macumberos del Sinú.
He studied Harmony with Antonio Benavides, Counterpoint and Fugue with Fabio González Zuleta, Direction and Implementation of musical bands with José Rozo Contreras, and Conducting and Orchestration with Olav Roots.
The following year he joined the American Conservatory in Paris where he studied with Nadia Boulanger (musical notation), Annette Dieudonné (auditory training) and Michel Philippot (composition).
He studied conducting with Igor Markevich and attended the composition class of Olivier Messiaen from whom he adopted his innovative ideas about treatment and development of rhythmic material.
In the first encounter with Nadia Boulanger presented works of abstract type with a highly developed language, but only managed to really capture her attention when he played in several piano pieces he had composed especially for a Colombian telenovela.
Similar works have been presented in various scenarios in the company of other musicians such as Totó La Momposina and Eddy Martinez with whom he produced the show "Colombia Suena Bien", which took place at the Teatro Colón in Bogota in 1997.
In 1976 he wrote the music for the show La Mala Hora, based on the literary work of Gabriel García Márquez, and in 1999 was in charge of the soundtrack to the restored silent film Bajo el Cielo de Antioquia, of Arturo Acevedo, originally released in 1924.
Several of his recent works are directly related to this project, including the sacred cantata Cienaga de Oro, based on traditional religious musical elements of the department of Cordoba; his work Bacatá Zapqua written for the celebration of 459 years of the Colombian capital; Manglares (for soprano and tenor, two singers and ensemble river marimbas) and Rito de Manglares (ballet symphonic orchestra, choir and soloists, singers), both released in Cali at the International Art Festival.