Marisa CanalesMarisa Canales is a Mexican flute player and Latin Grammy nominated record producer. She was born in Mexico City where she started her musical studies; she later attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, then Philadelphia College of Performing Arts (PCPA), where she studied with Adeline Tomasone and was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree Magna Cum Laude (1985). At the National Conservatory of Versailles, France she obtained First Prizes in Flute and Chamber Music working with Jean-Michel Varache (Île-de-France and Lamoureux Orchestras) and with Jean-Claude Montac (Opera Bastille Orchestra). She has also attended master classes with world-famous teachers like James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Geoffrey Gilbert. Marisa also performs regularly with the leading Mexican orchestras: National Symphony Orchestra, National University Philharmonic, Carlos Chavez Symphony, Xalapa Orchestra, Querétaro Symphony, Mexico City Chamber Ensemble. She has recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra Lalo Schifrin’s “Concierto Caribeño”, a work commissioned for and dedicated to her. She has also premiered and recorded a large number of flute works (over fifty), many written for her by leading American, Mexican and Latin American composers such as Samuel Zyman, Eugenio Toussaint, Arturo Márquez, Armando Luna, Ian Krouse, and many others. Her CDs have been released by Urtext Digital Classics, Mexico’s leading classical label, of which she is founder and artistic director.
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Benjamin Juarez Echenique
Benjamin Juarez Echenique is currently professor of Fine Arts and Arts Leadership at Boston University, a music conductor and scholar with over four decades of experience in the arts. Born in Mexico City, he studied in Mexico at the National School of Music, National University of Mexico, the California Institute of the Arts, where he obtained his Master of Fine Arts in Music, as well as in Italy, France and England. He was principal guest conductor and assistant conductor of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1981; associate conductor of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra from 1983 to 1987; and music director of the Gran Festival de la Ciudad de Mexico in 1989-90. He has lectured and run workshops on music and the arts in Mexico and abroad, where in 1984, Juarez was honored as the first Latin American to conduct an orchestra in China.
He was Head of the Music Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Musical Director of the Mexico City’s Grand Festival, and taught at the UNAM, the National Conservatory and the Superior School of Music of Institute of Fine Arts. He also founded the early music group Angelicum of Puebla, devoted to the rescue of the music of the seventeenth century from Puebla’s Cathedral Archives. Juárez Echenique has also produced and presented hundreds of radio and television programs in Mexico. His recordings of works of Baroque Mexican masters such as Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella, Francisco Delgado, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Manuel Arenzana and Fabián Ximeno for the Urtext label won him a Latin Grammy nomination in 2001. The same year he received the "Mexico Unido en sus valores Culturales" award. From September 2006 to August 2009 he served as General Director of Mexico's National Arts Center Centro Nacional de las Artes CENART as the result of a civil service selection process. He was the senior member of Mexico's Civil Service in the cultural sector. He is currently affiliated to the research university Instituto Dr. Jose Ma. Luis Mora.
He was Head of the Music Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Musical Director of the Mexico City’s Grand Festival, and taught at the UNAM, the National Conservatory and the Superior School of Music of Institute of Fine Arts. He also founded the early music group Angelicum of Puebla, devoted to the rescue of the music of the seventeenth century from Puebla’s Cathedral Archives. Juárez Echenique has also produced and presented hundreds of radio and television programs in Mexico. His recordings of works of Baroque Mexican masters such as Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella, Francisco Delgado, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Manuel Arenzana and Fabián Ximeno for the Urtext label won him a Latin Grammy nomination in 2001. The same year he received the "Mexico Unido en sus valores Culturales" award. From September 2006 to August 2009 he served as General Director of Mexico's National Arts Center Centro Nacional de las Artes CENART as the result of a civil service selection process. He was the senior member of Mexico's Civil Service in the cultural sector. He is currently affiliated to the research university Instituto Dr. Jose Ma. Luis Mora.
Marcela Davison Avilés
A first generation Mexican-American, Marcela Davison Avilés is a curator, presenter and producer of culturally relevant content and live events for Latino and diverse communities; published author and public speaker, and civic entrepreneur.
She is also the founder and principal of The Chapultepec Group, which provides C-suite services, content development, and cultural insights for the Hispanic/Latino market to multinational mass media corporations and non-commercial arts organizations, broadcast and radio organizations. From 2004 to 2014 Marcela served as the CEO and Executive Producer of the non-profit arts agency Mexican Heritage Corporation and its signature destination event, The San Jose Mexican Heritage and Mariachi Festival. She has a B.A. in Fine Arts, cum laude, from Harvard College and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
In her capacity as CEO/EP Marcela has curated, produced and presented award winning exhibitions, documentaries, concerts, and live events in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco, and internationally through online platforms. Marcela has worked with such well-known artists and organizations as Linda Ronstadt, Wosene Kosrof, Juan Gabriel, Marco Antonio Solis, Aida Cuevas, Eugenia Leon, Carlos Santana, Los Lobos, Ozomatli, Lila Downs, Joan Baez, Paquita la del Barrio, Mariachi Vargas, Mariachi Cobre, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlan, the San Francisco Symphony, the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, Symphony Silicon Valley, the San Jose Museum of Art, Teatro Vision, the San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild, the Children’s Discovery Museum, the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose State, the San Jose Arena Authority, the Mexican Consulate, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the American Folk Art Museum, and many other notable artists, as well as major promoters, arts organizations, venues, managers and agents in the music industry and non-profit arts community.
Marcela also serves as the lead Latino cultural advisor for The Walt Disney Company children’s program, Elena of Avalor, the upcoming Pixar release, "Coco," and continues to serve in a creative and strategic consulting capacity on various Disney projects. Her production activities also include award winning documentary projects which have been produced with and broadcast on KQED and CreaTV.
Ms. Davison Avilés is also an attorney licensed in California and New York. In her entertainment practice, she has advised on legal issues involving motion pictures, television and stage production, music performances, and related intellectual property issues.
She is also the founder and principal of The Chapultepec Group, which provides C-suite services, content development, and cultural insights for the Hispanic/Latino market to multinational mass media corporations and non-commercial arts organizations, broadcast and radio organizations. From 2004 to 2014 Marcela served as the CEO and Executive Producer of the non-profit arts agency Mexican Heritage Corporation and its signature destination event, The San Jose Mexican Heritage and Mariachi Festival. She has a B.A. in Fine Arts, cum laude, from Harvard College and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
In her capacity as CEO/EP Marcela has curated, produced and presented award winning exhibitions, documentaries, concerts, and live events in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco, and internationally through online platforms. Marcela has worked with such well-known artists and organizations as Linda Ronstadt, Wosene Kosrof, Juan Gabriel, Marco Antonio Solis, Aida Cuevas, Eugenia Leon, Carlos Santana, Los Lobos, Ozomatli, Lila Downs, Joan Baez, Paquita la del Barrio, Mariachi Vargas, Mariachi Cobre, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlan, the San Francisco Symphony, the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, Symphony Silicon Valley, the San Jose Museum of Art, Teatro Vision, the San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild, the Children’s Discovery Museum, the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose State, the San Jose Arena Authority, the Mexican Consulate, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the American Folk Art Museum, and many other notable artists, as well as major promoters, arts organizations, venues, managers and agents in the music industry and non-profit arts community.
Marcela also serves as the lead Latino cultural advisor for The Walt Disney Company children’s program, Elena of Avalor, the upcoming Pixar release, "Coco," and continues to serve in a creative and strategic consulting capacity on various Disney projects. Her production activities also include award winning documentary projects which have been produced with and broadcast on KQED and CreaTV.
Ms. Davison Avilés is also an attorney licensed in California and New York. In her entertainment practice, she has advised on legal issues involving motion pictures, television and stage production, music performances, and related intellectual property issues.