NOTES FOR GROWTH AMBASSADORS
Notes for Growth appoints distinguished artists who actively support Notes for Growth. Our Ambassadors represent high-level talent and diversity, and make significant contributions to the arts and arts education in the Metro New York City area and worldwide. Notes for Growth supports our Ambassadors by:
Highlighting Ambassadors on our social media through interviews, spotlights, and promotion of their events
Giving them performance opportunities on world-renowned stages and platforms to share their work
Connecting them to new audiences
Commissioning new works
Alejandro Mendoza, Concert Violinist & Director
Alejandro has toured North America, South America, and Asia performing both as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras. The New York Press has called him “an outstanding soloist” and The Ann Arbor (MI) News wrote, “Alejandro Mendoza’s playing of the violin … is enough to start the bravos pouring from the gallery.” He has also been heard in Japan, where his sold out concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya led to return engagements to many Japanese cities.
Alejandro is also internationally recognized as a violin professor. He currently teaches at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, Columbia University, and gives Master Classes in the USA and abroad. He is frequently asked to adjudicate violin competitions in several countries. His teaching career began while still a student at the Juilliard School, when he was chosen by celebrated violin pedagogue, Dorothy DeLay, to work with her as a teaching fellow at Juilliard and as a faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Mendoza was also trained in the great teaching tradition of the late Ivan Galamian and spent summers at the Meadowmount School of Music. In 1997 Mr. Mendoza founded the Amati Conservatory in New Jersey; a music school for dedicated young music students. Later, in the year 2000 he founded the Amati Music Festival in New York State, a summer music school that draws students from many countries who travel to study with distinguished music pedagogues in the beautiful setting of the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.
Born into a family of professional musicians, Alejandro Mendoza learned music at an early age. His first instrument was the recorder and his first music teacher was his father, the distinguished Chilean pianist Galvarino Mendoza. It was his father who discovered that young Alejandro had perfect pitch at the tender age of five years old. His music theory, solfège, and choir teacher was his mother Eliana Piñeiro, who taught him singing, piano, and to read music, before he even learned the alphabet. Alejandro Mendoza’s first performances were at the age of six. After having performed extensively on alto, tenor, and soprano baroque recorders, at the age of seven he was asked by his parents if there was any other instrument that he would love to play. Without hesitation his response was: the violin.
AMANDA NARANJO, PIANIST
Amanda (20 years old) began her musical studies at the age of 7, being admitted to the National Conservatory of Music with Professor Marcela Lillo Tastets for a period of 4 years, of which the last two were private. She performs for the first time before an audience at the same age at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile, followed by concerts at the America Hall of the National Library, the Teatro Espacio Matta and the Mozart Hall of the Institute of Music UC (IMUC).
In 2015 she enters the Elementary Cycle of the IMUC under the tutelage of maestro Mario Alarcón Canales, with whom she studies until today. Achievements:
1st place in the first category of the Piano Competition "Toca el cielo" organized by Radio Beethoven, year 2017.
2nd place in the first category of the "X Flora Guerra Competition" organized by the Chopin Society, year 2018.
Scholarship awarded by the Foundation for Youth Talent "FundaCEK" during the years 2018 - 2021. Currently in the Alumni category.
1st place in the second category of the piano competition "Toca el cielo" organized by Radio Beethoven, year 2019.
Granted a scholarship by the Corporation "Amigos del Teatro Municipal" during the years 2019 to date.
Musical Excellence Scholarship (IMUC) for the years 2022 to date.
She has participated in master classes with pianists Bernd Zack (Germany), Danor Quinteros (Chile), Felipe Verdugo (Chile), Alberto Rosado (Spain), Rodrigo Furet (Chile) and Edith Fischer (Chile).
During her years of study, she has been invited to play in different stages and commemorative dates such as the "XVIII Encuentro de Jóvenes Talentos Chillán 2020" in commemoration of the 117th Anniversary of the birth of Maestro Claudio Arrau León, "3rd Festival Toccata Rancagua" (2017), "1st Meeting of Young Pianists" at the University of Talca (2017), at the "Corporación Cultural de Providencia" (2017), and also participated since 2018 actively in the concert cycles carried out by the Chilean-German League (DCB). She is invited by the "Notes for growth" foundation to perform a private concert for its benefactors and also, she has been called on more than one occasion to perform a soloist concert as part of the Musical Excellence Scholarship holders in the XXI Century Performers Cycle of the IMUC in the Auditorium of the Centro de Extensión Oriente UC. In February 2023, she was invited along with her professor Mario Alarcón to premiere the new Bluthner piano of the IMUC at the Centro de Extensión Oriente UC, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff with a repertoire exclusively by this composer.
She is currently in her 2nd and 4th year of a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance at the Institute of Music of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Anna Keiserman, Pianist
Russian-born and New York-based pianist Anna Keiserman is known for her creative programming, expressive freedom, and singular vision. With her debut album, Russian Mosaic, recently released on the Sheva Collection label, Anna offers rarely heard gems by Rachmaninoff, Shchedrin, Smirnov, and Medtner.
With a focus on actively engaging audiences, Anna created several custom programs for the Salmagundi Art Club. With her “American Music 1917-18,” “Sounding Palettes,” and “New York Lights,” Anna invited audiences to explore surprising repertoire in a variety of cultural contexts. Other performance credits include Le Poisson Rouge, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 2019 Anna embarked on a concert tour in Spain premiering the Sonata Cerdanyenca for cello and piano by Marc Migó Cortes. The highlights of the 2020 season include concert tours and master classes in Minnesota, Virginia, Kansas and a recording of solo piano works by composer Jordi Cervelló. In 2017 Anna received the “Culture and Art” award from the New Russia Cultural Center (Rensselaer, NY) for her dedication to promoting arts and culture in the community.
Anna Keiserman has served as faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of the Arts, at the Rutgers University Extension Division, and at William Paterson University. Having earned degrees from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow and the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keiserman recently completed her Doctorate in Piano Performance from Rutgers University, where she earned the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for academic distinction and excellence in piano performance. In September 2020 Dr. Keiserman joined the faculty of Raritan Valley Community College as an Assistant Professor of Piano.
Claudia Peñailillo Villegas, Clarinetist
Claudia began her clarinet studies at the age of 9 in New York. She then continued formally at the University of Chile, where she graduated with maximum distinction in 2018. In addition to her work as a performer, pedagogy has always been present in her life, and has accompanied and highlighted her throughout her musical career. She worked for 5 years as a music teacher at the Ecole Noel School in Santiago, where she gained the experience of working with children with Down and Asperger Syndrome.
Claudia has performed at multiple festivals in Latin America, United States, and Europe and taken classes with renowned teachers. It is also worth highlighting her work as a project manager. She was the winner of the Dirac 2019 Contest, managed by the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her project consisted of performing pieces by Chilean composers with her chamber ensemble “Hoffnung Trio”, in a series of 3 concerts in the states of New York and New Jersey.
She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at New York University with Pascual Martínez-Forteza, clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic.
Daniel Lamas, Violist
An artist with an innovative and versatile spectrum, Chilean- American Violist, Daniel Lamas leads a multifaceted career as a performer and educator.
Daniel studied at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned his Master of Music. As a soloist and chamber musician, Daniel has presented concerts in the United States, France, Germany, and his native Chile, including an acclaimed international debut with the Orquesta de Camara de Valdivia.
Daniel has held the position of principal violist with the Orquesta de Camara de Valdivia, Musik landschaft westfalen philharmonie, Penderecki Festival, and serves as principal of various opera orchestras and chamber orchestras in NYC.
Danor Quinteros - Pianist
Danor Quinteros is considered by critics as "An artisan of refined sonorities" and "One of the most solid Chilean soloists today" with an ascending artistic career that has taken him to stages in Europe, Asia and North America, as well as to the most important halls in Chile, including the Municipal Theater of Santiago, Teatro del Lago and Aula Magna of the U. Santa Maria. His performances in venues such as Toppan Hall in Tokyo, Klavierfestival-Ruhr, Helsinki Chamber Music Festival, OneMonth Festival in South Korea, Banff Music Festival in Canada and Encuentro de Piano in San Carlos de Bariloche are some of his most outstanding participations. He has also given concerts in Spain, Italy, France, Austria and Japan. In Chile he has been invited to the Cycle of Great Pianists of the Municipal Theater of Stgo. and the annual season of Teatro del Lago in Frutillar.
Danor studied at the Musikhochschule in Cologne and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He performed in recitals in Chile, Japan, Germany and Italy among other countries. He was awarded a scholarship by the German exchange program DAAD and the Council for Culture and the Arts. Winner of the Claudio Arrau International Competition and the Steinway Prize in Germany, among others.
Graduated with honors from the Cologne School of Music in Germany and the Mozarteum University in Austria, Danor Quinteros is currently the most awarded Chilean pianist with more than 15 awards in competitions in Chile and abroad, including important triumphs in competitions such as the Steinway-Preis in Germany, the Santa Cecilia Competition in Portugal, the Enescu Competition in Bucharest and the Ile de France Competition, among others. As winner of the "Absolute Prize" at the Pietro Argento International Competition in Italy, Danor Quinteros was invited to be part of the jury in the following edition.
He has also been recognized in chamber music competitions, winning the Lausanne Prize in Switzerland for the best violin and piano duo and the prize for the best accompanying pianist in the violin category of the Enescu Competition.
As a soloist he has performed with important orchestras in Chile and Europe, collaborating with important conductors such as John Axelrod, Helmuth Reichel, Paolo Bortolameolli and Leonid Grin among others.
Danor Quinteros is a graduate of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He was a student of pianist María Iris Radrigán and took his degree exam with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, conducted by Mto. Victor Hugo Toro. He has received scholarships from the Corporación Amigos del Teatro Municipal, the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage and the prestigious German exchange program DAAD, in collaboration with CONICYT.
He has participated in numerous advanced courses with great pianists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Robert McDonald, Jacques Rouvier and Pietro de Maria, among others.
His recordings include releases for Leaf Music in Canada, SOLFA in Spain and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Chile.
Darwin Cosme, Flutist
Award-winning Puerto Rican flutist Darwin Cosme has been an avid chamber musician, orchestra, and soloist. He has performed with the Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Casals Festival of Puerto Rico, and New York Chamber Players. He has been under the baton of Pablo Heras-Casado, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Helmuth Rilling, Carlos Botero, Maximiano Valdés, Victor Yampolsky.
Motivated by his passion for chamber music and orchestras and the need to promote concerts, he created the Zafra Wind Quintett (2011) and Cosme-Zook Duo (2015). In 2014, Darwin convened the summer orchestra "New Symphonic Project," conducted by Maestro Rafael Enrique Irizarry. After this year, Cosme organized this orchestra for the next two consecutive years, and it is from this event that emerged in 2017, the Puerto Rico Summer Music Festival. During the 2015-16 season, he completed a concert tour with the pianist Amanda Zook (Cosme-Zook Duo), performing in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and Canada. These concerts were sponsored by Project 142 and themselves.
Darwin won 1st prize at the Toronto Latin American Flute Festival Chamber Music Competition with the Zafra Wind Trio and the Young Artists Competition at William Paterson University in New Jersey. He has also been invited two consecutive years to the Toronto Latin American Flute Festival as a guest artist. In 2019, he was invited as an Artist in Residence by the Universidad Autónoma de Cuidad Juárez, Mexico, at the 1st Flute Week. During his residency, he presented recitals, lectures and performed with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the university conducted by Maestro Lizandro Valentín García Alvarado.
Darwin currently serves as founder, executive and artistic director of the Diaz-Del Moral Foundation, the Latin American Chamber Player in New York, Puerto Rico Flute Symposium and Puerto Rico Summer Festival. Cosme maintains a full concert schedule and is an artist from Celestine Flute Rexonator and Hernández Flutes.
Enriqueta Somarriba, Pianist
Praised by the New York Concert Review for her "aplomb" and "natural, individual interpretation", Spanish pianist Enriqueta Somarriba developed her career in the US and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician and educator. She has performed in venues in the New York area, such as Carnegie Hall and Cervantes Institute, as well as internationally: Kasteel d’Ursel in Amberes, Belgium and Sala dei Notari in Perugia, Italy. She has performed as a soloist with the Orquesta Andrés Segovia, Virtuosi Brunensis Orchestra, Orquesta Fórum Musikae and Rutgers Symphonic Orquesta. Her performances have been recorded for the Spanish National Radio, 98.7 WFMT Chicago and 89.1 WWFM Radio.
An active performer of contemporary music, she has performed and/or premiered pieces by Jesús Torres, Roberto Sierra, Voro García, Benet Casablancas, Robert L. Aldridge, Paul Reale and George Walker. She carries a mission to promote Ibero-American music in the US, often curating concerts and programs around Spanish and Latin composers. In 2018 she curated the project "Alicia's Hands," performing pieces by De Larrocha and in 2019 she collaborated as a soloist with the Hub City Opera company in the dance project "Goyescas," performing pieces by Granados. She carries part of this mission as an educator, giving conferences and lecture-recitals on Spanish and Latin American music and on music appreciation, in Cornell University, Manhattan School of Music, University of Michigan and in partnership with the State Theatre of New Jersey and the Center for Musical Excellence.
She performs often in piano duo with her mentor, Min Kwon, collaborating in the two-piano and four-hands recording of works by American composer Paul Reale for MSR Classics, in concerts celebrating Leonard Bernstein's anniversary at Auditorio Nacional of Madrid and Carnegie Hall in NY, and as part of the Center for Musical Excellence concert series in NJ. Last season she performed Franz Liszt's piano score of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada and at the Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical, to celebrate Beethoven's 250th anniversary.
She is a winner of national and international competitions and has received awards from Juventudes Musicales de Madrid, Mutua Madrileña and AIE (Spanish Artists and Performers Association). Her most influential mentors are Solomon Mikowsky, Min Kwon and Fernando Puchol. She is a Part-Time Lecturer at Rutgers University since 2014.
Flor Lizbeth Cruz, Flutist
Flor is currently pursuing a Graduate Certification in Non-Profit Management and Innovation from the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She holds a Master of Arts in Music from the UMKC Conservatory and a Double Major BM in Education and Performance from Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), where she graduated summa cum laude. While studying at TAMUK, Flor participated in a service-learning chamber ensemble project that gave audience-interactive performances in the Kingsville community. In the fall of 2012, Flor brainstormed what would become the TAMUK Flute Day with Associate Professor of Flute Dr. Elizabeth Janzen, and served as Artist Liaison for the event for three years. The TAMUK Flute Day has featured world renowned artists such as Damarre McGill, Amy Porter, Leone Buyse, Ransom Wilson, Linda Chesis, and Elena Pinderhughes.
As flutist for Valledo Winds Woodwind Quintet, Flor participated in the 2013 Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival as an emerging artist. She was selected as a counselor with teaching and performing assistantships at New York Summer Music Festival (2013, 2014) and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (2015). In January 2015, Flor attended the International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association Convention as a co-presenter of a lecture entitled It Takes a Village: How service learning projects in a small South Texas community have enriched academic, cultural and social development through music.
In 2017, Ms. Cruz gave the Kansas City premiere of award winning composer Nathaniel Hearing’s Cimmerian Isolation for Electronic Music Midwest, an electroacoustic music festival, and was selected to perform in OperaMaya International Summer Music Festival. Later in 2019, Ms. Cruz served as Orchestra Librarian and artist for Puerto Rico Summer Music Festival. She currently teaches privately through Meyer Music and performs with Mariachi Oro de México KC.
In 2019, Flor founded Colectiva Huēhuecoyōtl, a collective of soloists and chamber groups that offer music performances to events sponsored by non-profit organizations that cater to marginalized communities. Since its inception, Colectiva Huēhuecoyōtl has partnered with Latino Arts Foundation, a mentorship program in Kansas City, Missouri that offers free classes in all art genres to underserved youth, to bring music education, performance classes, and chamber music coaching to the LAF program. Most recently, she partnered with Faust Theater, a Kansas City musical theater that focuses on providing inclusive performances for all marginalized communities.
Georgina Isabel Rossi, violist
Georgina Isabel Rossi is a Chilean-American classical violist currently living in New York City. Her recent album, Mobili: Music for Viola and Piano from Chile, with pianist Silvie Cheng, was released in October of 2020 by New Focus Recordings and praised by the press as “expertly played” (WQXR), “a startling new recording” (CVNC Journal), and “one of my favorite discoveries of the year” (KDFC’s Brian Lauritzen).
Born and raised in Santiago, Rossi is a product of the Chilean national youth orchestra program (F.O.J.I.). Her first teacher was her mother, violist Penelope Knuth, and she moved to the U.S. to attend Interlochen Arts Academy. She holds a Master’s from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Roger Tapping, a Bachelor’s from the Manhattan School of Music, and is a Fellow of the Toronto, Bowdoin, and Kammermusik Akademie Hohenstaufen international festivals. Rossi plays a viola by Argentinian luthier Leonardo Anderi from 2014, and her bow is by Christian Whilhelm Knopf. She is a member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, where she holds the Wes & Chloe Horton chair.
Rossi is a passionate painter trained under Chilean artist Susana Larraín and at the Art Students League of New York.
Gisele Eid, pianist, writer, and educator
A Lebanese artist at heart, Gisele has always loved and appreciated art in its diverse forms, particularly music. Gisele began teaching piano, while specializing in piano and musicology at Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK). In 1987 she graduated with her certificate of musical pedagogy (Carl Orff in collaboration with Goethe and USEK), and, in the same year, she won the Lebanese National Music Incentive Award in the Music Research category.
In 1992, Gisele attained her Master’s degree in Musicology and proceeded to teach music in the small West African nation of The Gambia, at the “Do Re Mi- Piano and Music school”, her own music start-up school. Unfortunately, due to the 1994 Coup-d’Etat in Gambia, the country became unstable and Gisele was forced to move back to Lebanon, where she continues teaching piano and Russian piano techniques. In 2006, she became the piano teacher, and later on the director, of “La Majeur,” which has become the most prominent music school in the region.
She continues to teach online during the pandemic to help aspiring and professional musicians cope with these unprecedented times through music. Her achievements also expand beyond the realm of music. Gisele has published her own book “Al Mousikar Walid Gholmieh,” a biography of one of Lebanon’s most influential musicians and composers: Walid Gholmieh, which can be found in most major libraries of Lebanon, including the American University of Beirut (AUB).
Gisele’s love for music and the arts, along with her efficient teaching and communication methods, have helped her students grow into talented and proficient pianists and musicians, many of whom have gone on to produce their own music.
José Francisco Lecaros, Pianist
José Francisco was introduced to the piano at the young age of four. After breaking his arm a few months later, he experienced some friction with the instrument, but later came to love it after the realization that it could intersect other interests and passions. Although José now recognizes the plethora of uses music holds, he is fascinated by music’s ability to empower and bind itself to memories and emotions and securely preserve them in a protected area of memory, often immune to age and time.
Similarly, José passionately believes in the value and beauty of sharing the experience of performed music with others. In addition to aiding intellectual and cognitive development, music is one of the strongest common threads people share across the world and its ability to connect should be at everyone’s disposal.
José is currently studying Economics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh whilst working with a non-profit music academy in the United States.
Mallory Molina, Soprano
Mallory Molina is a Lyric Soprano and Music Educator based in New Jersey.
She studied Music Education with a concentration in Voice at the University of Connecticut. Mallory has enjoyed several years of teaching Chorus and General Music in both Connecticut and New Jersey public schools in many different classroom environments and age groups. Her driving philosophy as a teacher and musician is that singing is for everyone, no matter one’s age or ability level.
Martin Osten, Cellist
Martin has been a soloist with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand, and the Munich Chamber Soloists, among others. He has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in Europe, the USA and Asia, and has been invited to participate at the Tanglewood and Ravinia music festivals, IMS Prussia Cove Festival in England, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Patagonia Cellofest in Chile. His principal teachers and mentors have been Wolfgang Boettcher, Lynn Harrell, David Geringas, and Yo-Yo Ma.
He has been awarded prizes at numerous national and international cello competitions, and was a recipient of a national scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and a state scholarship from the Villa Musica foundation. From 2005 until 2006, Martin was principal cellist and soloist with the Munich Chamber Soloists, Germany. He was invited as guest principal cellist by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur, as well as by the Granada Symphony Orchestra in Spain.
In 2009, Martin was appointed Professor of Cello at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he is currently teaching cello and chamber music. In 2012 he was a visiting professor at Griffith University in Brisbane/Australia, and was invited to give master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal/Brazil, and the Musikhochschule Münster in Germany. Martin was invited to participate on the jury of the Dr. Luis Sigall International Cello Competition in Viña del Mar / Chile in 2011 and 2016.
Ramon Catalan, Conductor, Pianist, and Composer
Ramon is a versatile conductor, pianist and composer (ASCAP) praised by audiences in Chile, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Germany, and across the US. Mr. Catalan received his early musical education in Chile, earned a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina, and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Orchestral Conducting from Florida International University, Miami. Further conducting studies were with Vincent La Selva at The Juilliard School.
His CD Aires Sureños, featuring his own compositions, has sold copies all over the world.
Mr. Catalan is Music Director at Mary, Mother of the Church in Brooklyn. A resident of New York City since 2008, he lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife Angela and their two little daughters.
Ricardo Ihle, Pianist
Ricardo is a lawyer at Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile and specializes in civil law and legal arbitration. Currently, he works as an Associate at the law firm López, Escobar, Del Río.
His relationship with music began at an early age, when his grandfather taught him to play the piano. Then, he studied for over 8 years under the tutelage of pianist Patricia Rodríguez. From the time he started to perform, and still to this day, the piano has occupied a central space in his life and has been instrumental in his personal and professional development.
Sonya Headlam, Soprano
Soprano Sonya Headlam is an active soloist and ensemble singer of a diverse range of repertoire from the Baroque period to the 21st century.
She is a CME Artist and a member of the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street. She performs regularly with the Vocalis Consort, a group of musicians devoted to sharing their passion for art song, and with the Raritan Players, a group that explores lost performance practices and repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Sonya received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she has also worked as a Part-Time Lecturer in the Department of Music.