El Paso Conservatory of Music now offers in-person lessons and classes
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Faculty
Voice
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Private Voice Lessons
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Diction/Performance Class
Yvonne Marmolejo - Voice
Yvonne Marmolejo began her career at the age of 18, singing the role of Cio Cio San in an El Paso Civic Opera production of Madama Butterfly. Her travels led her to performances throughout Argentina, Northern Mexico, Syria, and Spain. Today, El Paso audiences have acclaimed her performances with El Paso Opera, including the title role in the company's 1994 premiere performance of Tosca. El Paso Opera welcomed her back as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Micaela in Carmen, and Liu in Turandot. Most recently, she performed the role of Musetta with El Paso Opera. Opera New stated that "Yvonne revealed in the lyricism of Micaela's music". Some of her other roles include Mimi, Countess Almaviva, Susanna, Violetta, and Santuzza. El Paso audiences have also heard her performances with the El Paso Symphony, El Paso Chorale, and El Paso Zarzuela. Around her busy teaching schedule, she has performed in recitals including performances at the Dallas Meyerson Symphony Hall and the Houston Opera Wortham Theatre.
Ms. Marmolejo, a past 10-year faculty member at El Paso Community College, was the Music Director of VIVA El Paso for seven years, and has been the music theater teacher at St. Joseph's School for 18 years. Ms. Marmolejo also was a conductor and board member of the El Paso Youth Choir for two years, and in 2005 began as Music Director and Conductor of the El Paso Choral Society Youth Choirs. Her choirs have performed with the El Paso Symphony, El Paso Opera, Las Cruces Symphony and other regional music organizations. The Young Ladies Choir has toured Italy, Canada, New York, and this year Santa Fe, New Mexico. Next year they will sing in Austria. This group of young singers has been featured on NPR's From The Top and have performed with the American Boy Choir and the Tucson Boys Choir.
Ms. Marmolejo has a B.M. and M.M. in voice from the University of Texas at El Paso and doctoral work at the University of North Texas.
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Private Voice Lessons
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Sightreading Class
Prentice Loftin - Voice, Theory, Sightreading
J. Prentice Loftin has been changing the music scene in El Paso since returning to his home-town in 1981. During his eleven years as Director of Choirs and Assistant Professor of Voice at UTEP, his choirs won international performance awards in Europe on three separate occasions. His private voice students have been heard on the world's greatest stages including The Met, Chicago Lyric, and San Francisco Opera. As a musician, Mr. Loftin began his career as a singer, performing many of the lyric tenor operatic and oratorio roles.
In 1993, Prentice Loftin and a new board of directors formed El Paso Opera, now in its twenty-seven seasons. As General Director, he guided the new arts organization to the forefront of the El Paso Arts Music scene. His productions gained an excellent reputation around the U.S., being favorably reviewed by Opera News many times. In the same year, 1993, he became the Music Director and Conductor of the El Paso Chorale, and the 24 voice professional singing ensemble, the El Paso Chamber Choir. His organization performed regularly with the El Paso Symphony, El Paso Opera, as well as recent performances with the Chihuahua Symphony, Flickinger Center, and Zarzuela El Paso.
Mr. Loftin has a B.M. from the University of Texas at El Paso, a Master of Church Music at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and doctoral work in voice at the University of North Texas and doctoral work in conducting at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. In 2004, Mr. Loftin and his wife Yvonne organized and began the El Paso Conservatory of Music.
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Private Voice Lessons
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Early Music Education
Karmina Guzman - Voice
Karmina Guzmán is a Mexican soprano from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, where she studied under the guidance of M.A. Alonso Fierro Olea.
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Throughout her career, Karmina has performed with distinguished ensembles and organizations across the United States and Mexico. She has appeared with El Paso Opera in productions including Tosca, How Green Was My Valley, and Carmen. She has also performed with the Gilbert and Sullivan Company of El Paso as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, and as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah.
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Karmina served as principal soprano with the Ballet Company of El Paso for its 2023 and 2024 productions of The Nutcracker. She made her principal debut with Hopera Hispánica in Misa de Infantes, performing the role of Zuipaqui/Ad Mariam under the baton of internationally renowned conductor Jorge Parodi.
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An active performer in the borderland arts community, Karmina is currently a member of the El Paso Choral Union and the St. Cecilia Choir and Orchestra. This season, she will make her European debut in Vienna, Austria, performing the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Grandi Voci Concerts.
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Karmina has participated in international music festivals including La Via Dei Concerti in Italy, Tlaxcala Canta in Mexico, CorHabana in Havana, Cuba, and the Hawaii International Music Festival in 2023, 2024, and 2025. She has studied in master classes and workshops with renowned artists including Lauren Flanigan, Audrey Luna, Cyndia Sieden, Julia Mintzer, and Maestro Carmine Aufiero, among others.
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In addition to her performance career, Karmina is an active music educator and arts administrator. She previously served on the voice faculty at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez and currently teaches voice and early childhood music classes at the El Paso Conservatory of Music. She also serves as Marketing and Communications Director for the El Paso Choral Society and Orchestra.
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Karmina’s current vocal mentors include renowned soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra, baritone Levi Hernandez, and conductor and tenor Prentice Loftin.
Piano
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Private Piano Lessons
Mario Monteros - Piano
Born in Argentina, Mario started his music studies in the city of Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, at the age of thirteen. He obtained his first degree in Piano Performance from Luis Gianneo Conservatory of Music in 2008. From 2003 to 2009, he studied privately with the renowned Italian-Argentinian pedagogue Antonio De Raco in Buenos Aires.
As a performing artist, Mario has played in many venues both in Argentina and abroad, including performances at summer academies of piano and chamber music directed by the pianist and orchestra conductor Paul Trein in Rheinland Pfalz, Germany in 2010.
In 2012 he was selected as a semifinalist of the international piano course and competition "Teachers del Norte - Pianists del Sur" held in Buenos Aires working with famous pedagogues from Eastman School of Music and Juilliard School of Music, such as Douglas Humpherys and Julian Martin. In 2015 he was selected as a semifinalist in the piano competition International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival, U.S.A. (Fort Collins, Colorado).
In December 2016 he received a Master's Degree in Piano Performance from UTEP.
He is currently the music director and pianist of the chapel at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Fort Bliss. He continues working with the renowned Argentinian pianist and pedagogue Sylvia Kersenbaum (Professor Emeritus from Western Kentucky University).
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Private Piano Lessons
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Piano Group Class
Joseph Lecher - Piano, Theory
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Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Joseph Lecher moved to El Paso in 2020 and has been serving as active collaborative pianist and educator in the desert southwest. He is the organizer and director of the Joe & Co. Chamber Music Festival for its inaugural year at UTEP and serves on the founding committee for the Chopin Borderlands Festival at UTEP created by Dr. Oscar Macchioni. Previously, he was the founder and director of the unofficially titled Lake Country Chamber Music Ensemble in southeastern Wisconsin which featured internationally acclaimed performers for annual summer concert series.
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Joseph Lecher is an adjunct professor of piano and music theory at the University of Texas at El Paso. Mr. Lecher is a guest performer with El Paso Symphony Orchestra (EPSO), Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra (LCSO), and El Paso Ballet Theatre Chamber Orchestra. He frequently collaborates with faculty and students from the University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico State University, Dona Ana Community College, and El Paso Community College.
Twice the winner of the Milwaukee Music Teachers Association Artist and Debut Series, he also received the Medaille d’argent in the Concours National de Chatou, France. He holds a performance diploma from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris de Cortot in Paris, France, and a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin and Carroll University, respectively.
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His former teachers include Margarita Kontorovsky, Shanti Daya, Elena Abend, Judit Jaimes, Cécile-Edel Latos, and Oscar Macchioni.
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Private Composition
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Private Piano Lessons
Jorge Martin - Composition, Piano
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Composer and Pianist “Martín wields a sharp pen.” -New York Times
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Jorge Martín-Buján was born in Cuba in 1959 and has lived in the United States since 1965. He holds degrees from Yale College and Columbia University. He writes in all major genres and his music is commissioned and performed by all kinds of artists and groups across the U.S. In 1999 and again in 2012 he received a generous Cintas Fellowship for creative artists of Cuban descent, and also the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ prestigious Academy Award in Music in 1998. In 2005 Mr. Martín was awarded a fellowship by the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, and artist’s residencies at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs in 1993 and again in 2003. The Fort Worth Opera Festival presented the World Premiere of Martín’s first full-length large-scale opera, Before Night Falls, in the spring of 2010; Florida Grand Opera revived the production in 2017. The world premiere audio recording of the opera appears on the Albany Records label is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and CD. Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico is mounting a new production with a new arrangement by the composer with a reduced orchestration in March 2024. His tour-de-force 65-minute song cycle The Glass Hammer was recorded by the legendary American baritone Sanford Sylvan with David Breitman and has since been taken up by a handful of brilliant young artists; most recently by Jonathan Hays with Craig Ketter and currently by Robert Wesley Mason with Sarah Thune. In 2020 Martín-Buján was honored by a consortium of El Paso’s leading cultural institutions with a commission to write a 40-minute Requiem for large orchestra, chorus and soloists to commemorate the dead from the Walmart shooting in 2019. The El Paso Symphony Orchestra performed it twice in fall 2021. Mr. Martín-Buján has numerous other recordings available commercially, and he is a member of A.S.C.A.P.
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Private Piano Lessons
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Theory
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Composition
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Orchestration
Hiram Rodriguez - Guitar
Hiram Rodriguez started studying Classical Guitar in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, with the late Professor Aquiles Valdez, later enrolled in the guitar performance program at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2005. He then was accepted to the Master’s in Music Performance program and graduated in 2013 with the “Outstanding Music Student Award.”
He has been actively engaged in the Classical Guitar scene at the border region by participating as a solo performer and as founding member and director of the “Lyrae Trio,” a guitar ensemble which started in 2011 in Juarez’ University (UACJ); performed at master classes for some of the most important and world-renowned guitar players like Andrew York, Eliot Fisk, and Pepe Romero, at UTEP with Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic, at UT Austin with Adam Holzman, at The Chihuahua City Conservatory of Music with the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, and with Croatian guitarists Dennis Azabagic and Zoran Dukic at the “Hispano-American Guitar Festival” at the city of Saltillo, Mexico.
Recitals across his career include “Concierto Andaluz” by Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra (season opening, September 2019), premiering a guitar concerto with the Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Chihuahua (2019) and a series of recitals at the FIMU (Festival International de Musique Universitarie) at Belfort, France, and the Juvissy-sur-Orge Conservatory in Paris (2014).
Other recitals include opening Fine Arts Museum in Ciudad Juarez, the University Cultural Center at Juarez’ University, Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall at UTEP with the University Wind Symphony, UTEP’s Centennial Museum and Gardens, and with the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra.
His guitar teaching experience started in El Paso at Desert Moon Academy of the Arts, followed by El Paso Independent School District Thomas Jefferson High School and currently leads a private studio, as well as being faculty member at Juarez’ University School of Music (UACJ) and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Additionally, to his academic duties, he constantly participates as adjudicator at local high school guitar competition and guitar festivals out of town, and since 2013, performs and conducts the “Festival Universitario de Guitarra Clasica Aquiles Valdez” at the University of Ciudad Juarez, hosting a national guitar competition and setting concerts with international acclaimed guitarists.
Hiram Rodriguez started studying Classical Guitar in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, with the late Professor Aquiles Valdez, later enrolled in the guitar performance program at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2005. He then was accepted to the Master’s in Music Performance program and graduated in 2013 with the “Outstanding Music Student Award.”
He has been actively engaged in the Classical Guitar scene at the border region by participating as a solo performer and as founding member and director of the “Lyrae Trio,” a guitar ensemble which started in 2011 in Juarez’ University (UACJ); performed at master classes for some of the most important and world-renowned guitar players like Andrew York, Eliot Fisk, and Pepe Romero, at UTEP with Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic, at UT Austin with Adam Holzman, at The Chihuahua City Conservatory of Music with the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, and with Croatian guitarists Dennis Azabagic and Zoran Dukic at the “Hispano-American Guitar Festival” at the city of Saltillo, Mexico.
Recitals across his career include “Concierto Andaluz” by Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra (season opening, September 2019), premiering a guitar concerto with the Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Chihuahua (2019) and a series of recitals at the FIMU (Festival International de Musique Universitarie) at Belfort, France, and the Juvissy-sur-Orge Conservatory in Paris (2014).
Other recitals include opening Fine Arts Museum in Ciudad Juarez, the University Cultural Center at Juarez’ University, Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall at UTEP with the University Wind Symphony, UTEP’s Centennial Museum and Gardens, and with the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra.
His guitar teaching experience started in El Paso at Desert Moon Academy of the Arts, followed by El Paso Independent School District Thomas Jefferson High School and currently leads a private studio, as well as being faculty member at Juarez’ University School of Music (UACJ) and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Additionally, to his academic duties, he constantly participates as adjudicator at local high school guitar competition and guitar festivals out of town, and since 2013, performs and conducts the “Festival Universitario de Guitarra Clasica Aquiles Valdez” at the University of Ciudad Juarez, hosting a national guitar competition and setting concerts with international acclaimed guitarists.
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Private Violin/Viola Lessons
Michael Goldman - Violin, Viola
Michael Goldman began studying the violin at age 7 with Robert Semon, and at age 17 began studying with Abraham Chavez, Jr. at Texas Western College and graduated from Texas Western (now UTEP) with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and minoring in Music.
Mr. Goldman was a violinist in the Cleveland Orchestra for 7 years under George Szell and Lorin Maazel. He was the concertmaster of the El Paso Symphony for 4 years under Orlando Barrera and associate concertmaster under Abraham Chavez, Jr., Gurer Aykal, and Sarah Ioanides. Also, he was the concertmaster of the Las Cruces Symphony under Lonnie Klein, El Paso Opera under Raymond Harvey, and El Paso Pro-Musica under Bruce Nehring.
Michael Goldman has done an extensive private violin instruction and was also an orchestra teacher in the El Paso Public Schools for 2 years.
Violin/Viola
Cello
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Private Cello Lessons
Leslee Becker - Cello
Leslee was born and raised in El Paso, TX, where she began playing the cello at age 10. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from the University of North Texas in Denton, studying modern cello with Nikola Ružević and baroque cello with Allen Whear and Paul Leenhouts.
Music has taken her all over the world, to stages in Japan, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and cities across Texas. She cherishes performing and storytelling through music in professional symphony orchestras, chamber music ensembles, musical theater, and rock bands. Leslee is a member of San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and West Texas Symphony Orchestra in Midland. She is a substitute musician for El Paso and Las Cruces Symphony Orchestras. Miss Becker is also an accomplished recording artist, working as a freelance cellist and vocalist in all genres of music, and had the distinguished honor of participating in Denton’s 5th Rock Lottery. Her lifelong dedication, though, has been to teaching students in El Paso, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton Metroplex, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for over 25 years. Leslee is avid about charitable work such as donating music to pet orphanage fundraiser events, community food banks, and special education graduation ceremonies, organizing benefit concerts for communities in need, and creating a music scholarship for high school students. She returned to El Paso in 2021 to pursue a Master’s degree in Cello Performance in the studio of Zuill Bailey at UTEP. She enjoys spending her free time in the company of dogs and cats watching the Dallas Cowboys.Leslee was born and raised in El Paso, TX, where she began playing the cello at age 10. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from the University of North Texas in Denton, studying modern cello with Nikola Ružević and baroque cello with Allen Whear and Paul Leenhouts. Music has taken her all over the world, to stages in Japan, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and cities across Texas.
She cherishes performing and storytelling through music in professional symphony orchestras, chamber music ensembles, musical theater, and rock bands. Leslee is a member of San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and West Texas Symphony Orchestra in Midland. She is a substitute musician for El Paso and Las Cruces Symphony Orchestras. Miss Becker is also an accomplished recording artist, working as a freelance cellist and vocalist in all genres of music, and had the distinguished honor of participating in Denton’s 5th Rock Lottery. Her lifelong dedication, though, has been to teaching students in El Paso, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton Metroplex, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for over 25 years. Leslee is avid about charitable work such as donating music to pet orphanage fundraiser events, community food banks, and special education graduation ceremonies, organizing benefit concerts for communities in need, and creating a music scholarship for high school students. She returned to El Paso in 2021 to pursue a Master’s degree in Cello Performance in the studio of Zuill Bailey at UTEP. She enjoys spending her free time in the company of dogs and cats watching the Dallas Cowboys.Leslee was born and raised in El Paso, TX, where she began playing the cello at age 10. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from the University of North Texas in Denton, studying modern cello with Nikola Ružević and baroque cello with Allen Whear and Paul Leenhouts. Music has taken her all over the world, to stages in Japan, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and cities across Texas. She cherishes performing and storytelling through music in professional symphony orchestras, chamber music ensembles, musical theater, and rock bands. Leslee is a member of San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and West Texas Symphony Orchestra in Midland. She is a substitute musician for El Paso and Las Cruces Symphony Orchestras. Miss Becker is also an accomplished recording artist, working as a freelance cellist and vocalist in all genres of music, and had the distinguished honor of participating in Denton’s 5th Rock Lottery. Her lifelong dedication, though, has been to teaching students in El Paso, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton Metroplex, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for over 25 years. Leslee is avid about charitable work such as donating music to pet orphanage fundraiser events, community food banks, and special education graduation ceremonies, organizing benefit concerts for communities in need, and creating a music scholarship for high school students. She returned to El Paso in 2021 to pursue a Master’s degree in Cello Performance in the studio of Zuill Bailey at UTEP. She enjoys spending her free time in the company of dogs and cats watching the Dallas Cowboys.
Robert Taylor - String Bass
Robert Taylor has performed with the El Paso Symphony for over 20 years, including 16 years as principal. He has performed with the Austin Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, and the Orquesta Sinfonica de la UACJ, among many others. Robert has been on the teaching faculties of UTEP, the University of North Texas, and Texas A&M International University. He has appeared as a soloist with the UTEP Symphony Orchestra, El Paso Pro-Musica, and the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, and has performed in the El Paso Pro-Musica International Chamber Music Festival. Robert’s primary bass studies were at the University of New Mexico, where he studied with Mark Tatum.
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Private String Bass Lessons
Percussion & Drums
Percussion & Drums
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Private Violin/Viola Lessons
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Private Drums Lessons
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Private Percussion Lessons
Ricky Malichi - Drums & Percussion
Ricky Malichi was born in Riverside, California and grew up in El Paso, Texas. His love of music was evident very early. The journey of a lifetime commenced when he began private percussion studies at eight years of age.
Achieving multiple music honors in both High School and College, he studied Special Education at the University of Texas at El Paso while continuing his musical studies and activities in the Fine Arts Department. He fueled his thirst for musical knowledge outside the classroom as well to travel back East to study privately with legendary drum great Alan Dawson and others.
Ricky’s early jazz performing began in college when he joined a Quartet alongside the Jazz great and mentor Trumpeter Gerald Hunter. During that period and after, he worked with many jazz greats, including Jack Sheldon, Joe Newman, Tommy Newsome, and Charlie Rouse. One of Ricky’s highlights was when he subbed a night for the legendary Shelly Mann with Herb Ellis and Monty Budwig, after that performance he worked with them several times. His career has progressed since then throughout the United States and Europe, performing places such as the A – Trane International Jazz Club in Berlin, Germany and The Philharmonic Concert Hall in Lviv, Ukraine, and the International Jazz Festival in Sydney, Australia. In 2016 he toured with The Juarez/Chihuahua Symphony, performing pieces arranged for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra and many Jazz Festivals through out Mexico. Ricky has shared the stage or recorded with David “Fathead” Newman, Herbie Mann, Mose Allison, Chris Calloway (Cab’s Daughter), Richie Cole, Anita O’ Day, Ernie Watts, Bobby Shew, Bud Shank, Bobby Hutcherson, Regina Carter, Tia Fuller, Majic Fontuna (Trpt.) from Poland, Chuck Berry and the list goes on.
This year Ricky will be performing across the country and abroad. He has been invited back to play the 13th Annual Roswell Jazz Festival where in 2015 he was named the Guest of Honor (www.roswelljazzfestival.org). For years he has performed many prestigious Jazz Festivals and Parties with Internationally known musicians such as, Dan Barrett, Chuck Redd, Houston Person, Eddie Erickson, Frank Tate, Allen Vache, Scott Robinson, Randy Sandke, Rebecca Kilgore, Harry Allen, Nicki Parrott, Rossano Sportiello, Howard Alden, Howard, Elkins, Dr. Roger Dickerson, Ehud Asherie, Randy Reinhart and more.
There are two musical groups Ricky is always excited about. He helped established “New Impressions” and “EP Jazz Quartet.” Recording and touring across the country, Mexico, and Europe has been a joy. Working with Erik Unsworth (Bass), Curt Warren (Guitar), Mack Goldsbury (Sax), Shaun Mahoney (Guitar), and the late great Vince Genova has been a wonderful journey. Keeping the Art form of Latin music alive he was co-founder of the award winning Latin Jazz Quartet (Yoboso) appearing on B.E.T. program “Jazz Central”. Ricky has been a part of a rhythm section with a great Latin Jazz/ Salsa Ensemble “Spice of Life” under the direction of pianist and longtime friend Michael Francis.
With such richly musical experience and commitment to being a “team player”, Ricky is equipped to consistently contribute outstanding, stylistically authentic performances to any ensemble, regardless of the genre.
Malichi’s accomplishments are substantial in the field of music education. He takes his talents into public schools and universities as a clinician, and as an adjudicator in and out of the country. Ricky has had the privilege to perform at the Chautauqua Jazz Party but, was one of the clinicians at the (Traditional Jazz Workshop). In Poznan, Poland he was honored to teach at The I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music (International Jazz Workshop), La Universidad Automa De Aguascalientes in Mexico, and workshops and performances in Australia to name a few places abroad. He is the President for Southwest Arts Alliance, Inc. and is on staff (Percussion Instructor) with the El Paso Music Conservatory.
Ricky has been named to the Spaun Drum Co. artist roster (www.spaundrums.com) and plays Spaun drums exclusively. Brian Spaun and his staff create wonderful, custom-hand crafted drums featured during his performances, clinics, and recordings.