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SoNA Beyond

Voces Latinas (Latinx Voices)

SoNA kicks off this series with Voces Latinas (Latinx Voices). This concert celebrates the vibrant impact Latinx artists have made in our community, culture and artform through chamber music.

The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas kicks off its new series, SoNA Beyond with Voces Latinas (Latinx Voices), curated by four esteemed local symphony musicians in collaboration with Fayetteville Public Library. Curators Lia Uribe, Fernando Valencia, Raul Munguia and Cristian Martinez Vega center and celebrate the vibrant impact Latinx artists have made in our community, culture and artform through a variety of chamber music works. This concert will traverse a kaleidoscope of Latinx voices past and present – treasured time-honored classics from across Latin America, as well as contemporary Latinx voices of today that push beyond the traditional boundaries of what classical music can be.

SoNA and FPL celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with this concert at the library's new Event Center at 6 p.m. A pre-concert community mixer will be held in the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Gathering Glade at 4:30 p.m. to bring together the community with food trucks, musical performances from Son Sin Gnero and community organizations. 

The Voces Latinas (Latinx Voices) concert and mixer are free and open to the public. Registration is suggested.

Curators:

Cristian Martínez Vega is a classically trained performer, instructor and scholar who enjoys introducing new audiences to classical music. He holds a master's degree in Musicology and Violin Performance from the University of Oklahoma; and he currently works for Naxos of America, one of the leading classical music record companies in the United States. As a member of the Bloomfield String Quartet, he studied chamber music at Wichita State University with Dr. Leonid Shukaev, cellist of the Grammy-nominated St. Petersburg String Quartet.  Martínez Vega has performed as a violinist in America, the Middle East and Europe. He has served a violinist for orchestras and ensembles for organizations such as Valley Symphony Orchestra (Texas), Wichita Symphony Orchestra (Kansas), Armenian Symphony Orchestra (Yerevan), Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie (Bavaria, Germany), Rheintalische Musikschule Symphonie (Lustenau, Austria), Mediterranean Opera Workshop and Festival (Sicily) and Vienna Summer Music Festival (Vienna). His chamber music training has also led him to perform at Music in the Mountains, Sewanee Summer Music Festival (Tennessee), and British Isles Music Festival (London).  He currently performs with the Northwest Arkansas Symphony.

Lia Uribe, associate professor of bassoon at the University of Arkansas, principal bassoonist of SoNA and APO, and member of the Lyrique Quintette, maintains an active career as a chamber musician/orchestral-player/artist-teacher. With international work presented in Argentina, Colombia, Canada, England, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Finland, Peru, Ecuador, Germany, Greece and Japan, Lia has also played and taught in multiple USA venues. She is an advocate of new music and has commissioned/premiered new works for the bassoon. Her research interest is centered on Latin-American and Latinx music and composers, in addition to inclusiveness, representation and diversity in the arts. 

Fernando Valencia is a Percussion Instructor and Director of the Latin American Music Ensemble at the University of Arkansas. Mr. Valencia received his B.M. from the Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia) and his M.M. from The University of Arkansas. He later went on to Temple University to obtain the Professional Certificate of Studies with Alan Abel of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He also studied Afro-Cuban drumming at the prestigious Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana, Cuba. Formerly the principal percussionist of the National Wind Symphony of Colombia, he has also performed with The Youth Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, Bogota Philharmonic, Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey, Arkansas Symphony and currently with The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Arkansas Philharmonic and Fayetteville Jazz Collective. He has recorded extensively in Colombia and the U.S. and has participated in Grammy nominated and nationally broadcast recordings in the popular and classical arenas. 

Dr. Munguía is Director of Orchestras and the violin/viola professor at Pittsburg State University where he teaches applied for Upper Strings,  Chamber Music, String Tech courses, and leads the Graduate Orchestral Conducting Program. Dr. Munguia is a thriving conductor, chamber musician, and orchestral musician who received his Doctoral of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from Texas Tech University. Dr. Munguia holds a Masters in Music from the Northwestern State University of Louisiana with an emphasis in orchestral conducting and violin performance and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern Mississippi.

A strong advocate of music education, Dr. Munguia has served as a clinician, guest conductor, and coach for several District and Honor orchestras in Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Honduras. Dr. Munguia enjoys an active guest conducting schedule working with orchestras in his native country of Honduras, El Salvador, Chile, & Brazil. Dr. Munguia is also the founder of the first Orchestral Conducting Workshop of Honduras hosting its first edition in January of 2019. At PSU, he also hosts the Pitt State International Conducting Workshop every other year bringing aspiring student conductors from Latin America.

A passionate proponent for the chamber music genre, Dr. Munguia launched in 2019 his chamber ensemble "Duo Capriccioso" with flutist Denissa Rivas exploring Latin American Repertoire as well as nearly four centuries of rare works and to continue to commission new works. Dr. Munguia also founded the Pittsburg Music Festival held annually every summer in the city of Pittsburg, Kansas. Having just completed its 8th season, the Pittsburg Music Fest promises to continue to grow as it has in the first eight seasons bringing many local, regional, and nationally renowned artists.

(Español)

El Dr. Munguía es director de orquestas y profesor de violín / viola en la Universidad Estatal de Pittsburg, donde imparte cursos de cuerdas superiores, música de cámara, tecnología de cuerdas y dirige el programa de posgrado de dirección orquestal. El Dr. Munguia es un director activo, músico de cámara y músico orquestal que recibió su Doctorado en Artes Musicales en Dirección Orquestal de Texas Tech University. El Dr. Munguia tiene una Maestría en Música de la Northwestern State University of Louisiana con énfasis en dirección orquestal e interpretación de violín y una Licenciatura en Música de la University of Southern Mississippi. Un firme gestor de la educación musical, el Dr. Munguia se ha desempeñado haciend clínicas y ha sido director invitado de varias orquestas de distrito y de honor en Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, Louisiana y Honduras. El Dr. Munguia disfruta de un horario activo como director invitado trabajando con orquestas en su país natal de Honduras, así mismo de El Salvador, Chile y Brasil. Dr. Munguia también es el fundador del primer Taller de Dirección Orquestal de Honduras que albergará su segunda edición en enero de 2022. En PSU, también organiza el Taller Internacional de Dirección de Pitt State cada dos años que reúne a estudiantes aspirantes a directores de América Latina. género musical, el Dr. Munguia lanzó en 2019 su conjunto de cámara "Dúo Capriccioso" con la flutista Denissa Rivas explorando el repertorio latinoamericano, así como casi cuatro siglos de repertorio y continuar comisionando nuevas obras. El doctor Munguia también fundó el Festival de Música de Pittsburg que se celebra anualmente todos los veranos en la ciudad de Pittsburg, Kansas. Habiendo completado su octava temporada, el Festival de Música de Pittsburg promete seguir creciendo como lo ha hecho en las primeras ocho temporadas, trayendo a muchos artistas de renombre local, regional y nacional.

SoNA Beyond:

This inaugural concert of SoNA Beyond embodies the series' vision of expanding beyond the reach of the mainstage, reaching out to the community with innovative and inclusive artistic experiences that present music in new ways, celebrating an expansive view of what classical music is and who it serves.  From outdoor educational concerts, to community partnership collaborations, to groundbreaking contemporary music experiences, SoNA Beyond moves past conventions and reaches audiences in meaningful and unexpected ways, highlighting the limitless impact of music.

SoNA Beyond concerts at the Fayetteville Public Library are sponsored by the Walmart Foundation.

SoNA Beyond explores new ways for audiences to gather around artistic experiences and connect with the community.  Through this series, SoNA is able to refocus who our artform serves, what voices are presented, and how we connect with our community and connect with organizations, venues, and communities beyond symphonic concerts on its mainstage showcasing the full spectrum of possibilities of classical music.

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