2008 VIVA! Scholarship Recipients

Viva! will support three recipients with a bursary of 10,000 pesos each: The three recipients are Emmanuel Medeles, voice, Wilfrido Arellano, violin and Ivan Morales, piano. Additional information on all three will be forthcoming. Congratulations to all!

Luis Fernando Rodriguez Castillo

Born in Guadalajara in 1980, baritone Luis began his musical career as a boy soprano in the choir of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. He attended both elementary school and high school there, ultimately obtaining a degree from the University’s School of Music.

In 1994 he and eight other singers formed a chamber choir which they named Omnes Gentes; in 1995 he had his solo debut with this choir with the baritone role in Mozart’s Coronation Mass. Luis was invited to join Dr. Harlan Snow’s voice studio in August 2002 and through this association was able to participate in master classes at Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin. He also sang with the Rice University Chorale. He took part in the 2002 National Conductors’ Meeting in Guadalajara.

Besides continuing to sing in various venues in and around Guadalajara, Luis has conducted orchestral concerts in Zapopan and in La Paz, Mexico. He is the founder and conductor of the Senior Choir of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. Since July 2004 he has been a scholarship student in the Music School of the University of Texas at Austin. He is presently completing his musical degree in Opera at the University of Texas at Austin. ¡VIVA La Música! proudly awarded him $7,500 pesos in 2005 to further his education, and another award of $10,000 pesos by ¡VIVA La Música! in the Fall of 2006. Again, in the Fall of 2007, ¡VIVA La Música! again awarded him $7,500 pesos toward the fulfillment of his studies.

Click Here
for a special note from
our scholarship student Luis Rodriguez
He has included an on-line recording for us!

Born in Ajijic, Jalisco, in 1982, Diego Rojas began his musical training in the children’s chorus of the Regional Music School before taking up the study of the violin in 1995. Four years later he entered the School of Music of the University of Guadalajara, studying under Maestro Salvador Zambrano, honorary concert master of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra. Diego placed second in the State of Jalisco in a violin duet at the 2000 Fiesta del Arte Jalisco Joven.

In 2003 he participated in the New Generations cycle in the Higinio Ruvalcaba Room of the Ex-Convento del Carmen. That same year he began work on his Licenciatura in Music at the University of Guadalajara in solo violin.

He has participated as a member of the String Orchestra of the Music Department and of the Symphonic Orchestra of the University of Guadalajara. Diego also studied with Maestro Cuauhtemoc Rivera, professor in the Escuela Superior de Música in Mexico City. In August 2005 he received scholarship assistance from ¡VIVA La Música! to take Master Classes with the Beverly Hills International Chamber Music Festival under Maestro Lorenz Gamma. Presently in the fifth semester of his graduate studies, Diego performs with the Quod Libet trio and the string quartet Quark and is a member of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Zapopan.

Diego Rojas, a resident of Ajijic and a graduate of the University of Guadalajara School of Music, was awarded $7,500 pesos in 2005 to enable him to attend violin master classes in Los Angeles.

A native of Guadalajara, Dolores attended the Jose Clemente Orozco School of Art, a branch of the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City, taking classes in theater, dance, music, and plastic arts. After earning a Bachillerato in Art Education from that institution, she entered the Escuela Superior de Música Sagrada in Guadalajara and obtained the degree of Licenciada in Gregorian Chant. Besides studying singing with numerous local teachers, she has taken special classes under Jane Olian, Katherine Ciesinsky, Teresa Ramirez, Marioara Trifán, Corradina Caporello, Nico Castell, and Johann Dornemann, the latter two from the New York Metropolitan Opera. Her repertoire extends from Gregorian chant to contemporary music. Dolores has sung in many of the most important music centers of Guadalajara and the Mexican Republic. She has performed on various occasions with the Symphony Orchestra of Michoacán and the Jalisco Philharmonic singing under the baton of Francisco Savin, Luis Herrera de la Fuente, Alfredo Ibarra and Luciano Pérez. She recently completed two compact discs, "Música de la Catedral de Guadalajara, Vol. II", and "La Voz en la Música de Domingo Lobato." She presently directs the Polyphonic Chorus of the University of the Valley of Atemajac as well as sings as solo soprano with the Ensamble Filarmónico de Guadalajara chamber orchestra.

Dolores received a ¡VIVA La Música! grant recently to attend a special workshop for up-and-coming operatic singers. She will be singing at our February 2007 membership gala.

Tenor Manuel Castillo Sapien was born in Guadalajara in 1974. He received his musical education at the Escuela Superior de Musica Sagrada and the Escuela de Musica of the University of Guadalajara, graduating from the latter institution in 2001 with a Bachelor’s degree in Singing and Composition. In 1992 he was invited to join the Academic Choir of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara and from 1993-1998 he studied Gregorian Singing at the Escuela Superior Diocesana in Guadalajara. In 1994 he and some friends founded the Omnes Gentes choir, which he directed until January, 2004. He also directed the Children’s Choir of the Antonio Caso Elementary School of the University of Guadalajara. Manuel has studied voice under Flavio Becerra and Dr. Harlan Snow. He has performed as a soloist singing opera and zarzuela, lied and oratorio as well as songs from broadway musicals. In 2003 he created the first master class for conductors with Maestro Leonardo Gasparini, and in August of that year was an active conductor during the VIII Annual International Conducting Class in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the fall of 2004 he was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and participated as a member of the UT Chamber Singers. Castillo performed his senior vocal recital in May of 2007 at the Duncan Recital Hall within Baird Music Hall. He performed works from Puccini, Schumann Verdi, Donnizetti, Sorazabal and Greever.

Completing his degree at the Morehead State University School of Music, at Morehead, Kentucky, he auditioned for admission into the graduate vocal performance program at the University of Kentucky in March. He was accepted into the program, and further, was one of 20 selected from more than 150 singers from across the nation to compete in the 2nd Annual Alltech Opera Scholarship Competition. A total of 10 singers competed at the graduate level, with another 10 at the undergraduate level. Castillo was selected as a second alternate for the top prize of more than $32,000. Since then, he has received an offer of a full graduate assistantship from the UK School of Music to do graduate work. Currently he studies with Dr. Ricky Little,

He was awarded $7,500 pesos by ¡VIVA La Música! in 2005, and in the Fall 2006 received a ¡VIVA La Música! scholarship for $10,000 pesos. Manuel is a former student of Harlan Snow. Click here to enjoy an on-line video of Manuel singing Silverio by Agustin Lara.

Rafael Contreras Lira, 18, began with The Golden Strings of Lake Chapala at age 14. Rafa had a sincere desire to learn music but had no wherewithal to pay for lessons nor buy an instrument. Rafa is the only son of Rafael Contreras Ramirez and Maria Guadalupe Lira, both of San Nicolas de Ibarra, Jalisco. He has three sisters. Having been a student of The Golden Strings, Rafa has become an accomplished violinist. On his recent graduation from prepa (high school) in Chapala, Rafa expressed a desire to continue his education in music.

He is the first student of The Golden Strings to have the desire to pursue music studies at a university level. ¡VIVA La Música! is currently providing a scholarship for him to attend the School of Music of the Centro Universitario de Arte, Architectura y Diseno at the Conservatorio San Agustin in Guadalajara, where Rafa is now into his second year of university level studies. In 2005 ¡VIVA La Música! made a commitment of $20,000 mp over a four-year period contingent to a suitable grade average being maintained. Toward this commitment, in 2007 $5,000 pesos was granted Rafael toward this year's tuition.

In 2005 ¡VIVA La Música! contributed $12,000 mp to The Golden Strings through a cooperative program with Los Cantantes del Lago.