Elena Rivera began her university studies in Geosciences Engineering at the University of Sonora in Mexico, but her interest in music led her to simultaneously begin music classes. Upon completing her degree in Geosciences Engineering, she was motivated by her singing teacher to make a greater investment in her music studies.

She received a scholarship from the Government of Sonora to move to Spain and study at the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid. During her first year there, she was invited to participate in the zarzuela El invitado del sevillano at the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao. This would be the first of many leading roles in European theatres. Upon completing her music program, she received the Lola Rodríguez Aragón award for being the most outstanding student of her generation.

She has performed lead roles in operas such as La Traviata, Rigoletto, Elixir of Love, Die Fledermaus, and Don Pasquale, among others. She has also performed in zarzuelas such as The Guest from Seville, The African Duet, The Barber of Lavapiés, and Marina, and she participated in the 150th anniversary concert at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in 2006. She shared the stage with tenor José Carreras in 2016 at the Pitic Festival in Hermosillo, Sonora.

She was nominated for the 2020 Latin Grammy in the category of Best Classical Music Album with the Latin American Quartet (Javier Montiel Llaguno, viola, and the brothers Bitrán Goren: cellist Álvaro, first violinist Saúl , and second violinist Arón) for their album The Juliet Letters (composer Elvis Costello). She also has recorded La Clementina by Luigi Boccherini conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado and Soles y brumas, with songs by Emiliana de Zubeldía accompanied by the Spanish pianist Jorge Robaina.

Joaquín Clerch  is a classical guitarist and composer. He is a close friend and protégé of Cuban guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer, one of the defining influences on his career as a performer and a composer. Clerch’s composition “Yemaya” won first prize in both the 1987 National Cuban Composition Competition and the 1987 Toronto International Guitar Competition.

He was born in 1965 in Havana, studied guitar as a child with his first teacher Leopoldina Nuñez, and later went to study with renowned teachers including Leo Brouwer and  Carlos Fariñas (composition). In 1990 he began his training in Salzburg  where he studied the guitar with Eliot Fisk, early music with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Anthony Spiri, and contemporary music with Oswald Salaberger. He completed his studies with the highest award in 1991, receiving the prize which the Cultural Ministry of Austria grants to the best graduates. He won an Echo Klassik Award in 2009 with Anette Maiburg, and Pancho Amat for their recording Classica Cubana.

In 1999 Joaquín Clerch was appointed as a professor of guitar at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf. Eliot Fisk described Joaquín as the outstanding guitarist of his generation worldwide.

https://www.joaquinclerch.com/en/

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