FACULTY
SA'OAXACA 2025
Gwendolyn Matias-Ryan
Artistic Director
Viola Faculty
Gwendolyn is a Mexican-American violist who obtained her Undergraduate and Graduate degrees in viola performance from Baylor University, a Specialist Degree in viola performance from the University of Michigan, and a Doctorate in Musical Arts Degree from Texas Tech University in May, 2024. She is also the creator and artistic director of SA’OAXACA, the Oaxaca Strings International Music Festival. She acts as the Lubbock Symphony Principal since August 2023, and acted as principal violist in the Oaxacan Symphony from 2015 to 2016. She has participated in prestigious chamber music festivals including Bowdin International Music Festival and Center Stage Strings. She was invited to take part in the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy, summer of 2018 and won both the Mid-Texas Symphony Concerto Competition in 2013 and the Texas Tech School of Music Concerto Competition in November 2021. As a chamber musician, Gwendolyn was a guest artist on the Rutenberg Chamber Music Series (Tampa, Florida), is an Iris Collective recurring member (Germantown, Tennessee), and was recently invited to act as principal viola for two of the Amarillo Chamber Music performances in the Spring of 2025. She has formed and been a member of two string quartets over the past 8 years and won the prestigious Mexican cultural grant, (FONCA) for SA'OAXACA in 2021 and 2025. Gwendolyn was awarded the CH Foundation Graduate Fellowship to study her Doctoral in Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas Tech under the tutelage of Philippe Chao, and is now a violin and viola faculty member at the West Texas Conservatory since August of 2024.
Lázaro Jascha González Muñoz
Violin Faculty
Originally from Oaxaca and a graduate from the Facultad de Música de la Universidad Veracruzana, Jascha has performed as a soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Orquesta Juvenil del Estado de Veracruz, Orquesta Universitaria de Música Popular, Orquesta de Cámara de la Escuela de Bellas Artes de Oaxaca, and the Orquesta de Cámara de Xalapa. He has also given recitals in Salem (U.S.) Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Sarajevo (Bosnia), and throughout Mexico. In 2003 Jascha placed first in the Mexican National “Hermilo Novelo” Violin Competition. He also participated in the International Violin Competition “Henryk Szeryng” in Toluca in 2008. For the past 14 years he has been a member of the Orquesta Sinfónica of Xalapa where he also occasionally acts as guest concertmaster. Jascha is currently studying his Doctoral in Musical Arts Degree at the University of Texas Tech under the tutelage of Dr. John Gilbert.
Julián Martínez Vázquez
Violin Faculty
A Purépecha musician, Julian began his musical studies as a child in his family's group Los Purépechas de Charapan and is currently concertmaster of the Michoacán Symphony Orchestra. His work is eclectic, equally committed to traditional music and the avant-garde. He has been a member of the Ensemble Moderne Akademie in Frankfurt and studied contemporary music with Melisse Mellinger of the Ensemble Recherche Akademie. He has premiered the piece ‘Corale’ by Luciano Berio, as well as giving the world premiere of ‘Stain’ by the Iranian composer Arash Yazdani. He is part of the Liminar ensemble with whom he has performed countless concerts and artistic residencies at Stanford University as well as at the most important contemporary music festivals in New York (MATA) and Berlin (Radialsystem). He also carries out important work in the creation of new repertoire for solo violin collaborating with living composers. In January of this year the German label Naxos published his recording “Estudio de contrapunto I” by composer Samuel Cedillo.
In 2017 he founded the Purépecha Conservatory and since 2022 he has been a professor at the Fine Arts School of the Michoacan University.
Teagan Faran
Violin Faculty
Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. Her playing has “brought the house down” (Represent Classical) as she explores the boundaries of genre and performance. An active soloist and chamber musician, she has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Amherst Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, among others. Recent recording features include albums with Carlos Simon and Diamanda Galás, and her latest solo album “Middle Child,” released on Navona Records in January 2025. Also active in the world of tango music, she has performed with Victor Lavallén and the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce, as well as at festivals across the United States.
Faran holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music. She has held fellowships with the Fulbright Program, Turn the Spotlight, Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Woodshed Network, and OneBeat. She is a Co-Artistic Director of the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Palaver Strings, and an Assistant Professor of Violin at Ithaca College. Faran plays on a 1977 Silvano Rebessi violin and “The Briar” viola by John Perrin Bean, as well as enjoying experiments with luthiers to push the definitions of what makes a violin a violin.
Omar Guevara
Violin Faculty
Winner of first prize in the "Hermilo Novelo" National Violin Competition at UNAM, the "Best Performer" Ollin Yoliztli Competition, and Chamber Music Competitions in Guanajuato and Michoacán. He has served as Concertmaster of the Carlos Chávez Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (OSN), the University of Guanajuato (OSUG), and the EFIO Oaxaca.
As a soloist or recitalist, he has performed on the most important international stages and festivals in Mexico, Perú, Panamá, and the United States.
He is the Artistic Director and member of the Carlos Chávez String Quartet, with which he has been an artist-in-residence at the International Chamber Music Festivals of San Miguel de Allende and Colgate University in New York, in addition to performing on concert tours throughout Mexico, the United States, Panamá, and China. He completed his academic training in Mexico, the United States, and Japan. He is currently Associate Principal Maestro of the OSN of Mexico, Professor and Chair Coordinator of the Music School "Vida y Movimiento" of the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center
Nathaniel Hoyt
Cello
Nathaniel Hoyt began his cello studies at the age of seven. He has extensive experience as an orchestral musician, having performed internationally in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, as well as having held principal cello positions in orchestras such as the Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra, Catholic University of America Symphony Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he is a prize-winner at several competitions, including 1st place at the Misbin Chamber Music Competition, and 2nd place in the senior division of the WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition. In 2019, he was a winner of the Eastern Music Festival Young Artists Concerto Competition. He is a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music Academy preparatory school, and a section cellist in the Canton Symphony and the Akron Symphony Orchestras. He holds a BM in cello performance from the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music in Washington D.C., where he won the 2018 Concerto Competition, and an MM in cello performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Mario Alejandro Torres Valdivieso
Bass
Mario Torres Valdivieso, born in Oaxaca Mexico in 1990, is an internationally renowned double bassist. At the age of 12, he began his musical training in the Libertad Children's and Youth Orchestra with Maestro Mauro Ramírez Pérez. He has studied in Mexico with Maestros Javier Cruz, Álvaro Porras, Alexei Diorditsa; and later abroad with Maestros Matthew Midgley, Rinat Ibragimov and Luis Cabrera. Mario has collaborated with orchestras such as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Monnaie Symphony, Champs Elysees Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Radio Philharmonic. Since 2022, he has been Co-Principal Double Bassist with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He has received scholarships from institutions in Mexico and abroad and has participated in educational programs in Mexico, the Netherlands and England. In 2021, together with baroque violinist Alba Conejo Mangas, he founded the Oaxaca International Double Bass Academy. Recently, he offers private lessons and has given master classes at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center. His dedication to education and music distinguishes him as an exceptional artist.
Jotaro Nakano
Chamber Orchestra Director
Japanese-American conductor Jotaro Nakano is a Southern California native who recently returned to his hometown after completing his graduate degree at the University of Michigan under Kenneth Keisler. Previously, Nakano served as Music Director of the Ann Arbor Camerata, Cover Conductor for the Baltimore Symphony, and Conducting Fellow of the Long Beach Symphony. He was most recently interim conductor of The Chapman Orchestra in Orange, CA. Nakano is currently completing his doctorate degree under the instruction of Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Nakano received his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan, studying with Kenneth Kiesler. He conducted in festivals, including the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Eastern Music Festival, and Prague Summer Nights Festival. He has participated in masterclasses led by Maestros Sir Simon Rattle of the Berlin Philharmonic, Gerard Schwarz of the Seattle Symphony, and Ovidiu Balan of the Mihail Jora Philharmonic. Jotaro has conducted orchestras in the Czech Republic, Romania, Maine, California, Michigan, and North Carolina. In the summer of 2023, Jotaro won the position as the Longwood Symphony Orchestra Director in Boston, MA.