Enrico Lopez-Yañez is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony and Pacific Symphony, as well as the Principal Conductor of Dallas Symphony Presents. Last season Lopez-Yañez was named Principal Pops Conductor Designate of the Detroit Symphony, a position he will begin in the 2024/25 season. Lopez-Yañez is quickly establishing himself as one of America’s leading conductors of popular music, and becoming known for his unique style of audience engagement. Also an active composer and arranger, Lopez-Yañez has been commissioned to write for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Omaha Symphony, and has had his works performed by orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Utah Symphony, among others.

Last season, Lopez-Yañez collaborated with artists including Ben Rector, Cody Fry, Trisha Yearwood, Tituss Burgess, Jefferson Starship, Portugal. The Man, Aida Cuevas, and Lila Downs. He appeared with the Detroit Symphony and Colorado Symphony, and made return appearances with the National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and more. Previously, Lopez-Yañez has appeared with orchestras throughout North America including the Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, among others.

As Artistic Director & Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, Lopez-Yañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. Symphonica manages a wide breadth of pops and family/education productions that “breathe new, exuberant life into classical programming for kids and families” (Nashville Parent magazine).

Miami native Jackie Mendez is a singer-songwriter and producer of Cuban and Lebanese descent. She started singing professionally at the young age of 17, when she was signed to Warner Brothers’ Elektra Records during her senior year of high school back in 2001. She began writing with the music industry’s top artists and songwriters, and has joined several world tours throughout the years with artists like Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Alejandro Sanz, Juanes, and, more recently, Ricardo Montaner. As an accredited artist with the Latin Recording Academy, she can be heard on four Latin GRAMMY®–winning albums singing along with Franco De Vita, Ricky Martin, and Alejandro Sanz. Mendez’s voice is a layered sound full of texture, rasp, and soul. She captures all the emotions in the world of funk, soul, and pop. Her music can be found on all streaming platforms, and she is currently working on a new studio album, which is set to be released in the fall of 2024.

Luis Ernesto Quintero Vegas, known as Luisito Quintero, was born in the populous Caracas, Venezuela neighbourhood of San Agustin on August 24, 1967. Quintero, a child music prodigy, hails from a lineage of distinguished musicians and singers.

His father, Luis Quintero Sr., a respected percussionist in his native country, tutored his son and encouraged him to play timbales at a young age. Quintero’s first steps into the professional music arena were taken performing in the group The New Generation, playing the bongos and timbales at only 8 years old. This group was inspired by his father and his uncles, Carlos “Nene”, Ricardo, and Jesus “Chu” Quintero. At the age of 12, he played with one of the most popular bands at that time, El Trabuco Venezolano. A year later he joined world-renowned salsa singer Oscar D’León. He remained with D’León for more than a decade until his departure to New York City in 1992.

Quintero quickly integrated into the New York City Latin music and jazz scene. His reputation as one of the best percussionists garnered him opportunities to perform and record with legendary artists, and serve as the musical director for some acts.

This master percussionist is not afraid to push the boundaries of his musical expressions and style, incorporating a wide variety of percussion instruments: timbales, congas, bongos, drum sets, the West African djembe and dundun, and others. Quintero brings technical wizardry and musicality to every performance and recording.

He has participated in more than 700 musical productions spanning a variety of music genres, and has more than 60 GRAMMY® and Latin GRAMMY® Awards to his credit. He won his most recent GRAMMY®s in 2019 for Best Latin Jazz Album with Chick Corea & The Spanish Heart Band, and in 2018 for Best Tropical Latin Album with Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

In August 2020 Quintero released the second recording of his GRAMMY®-nominated band (co-founded with his percussionist cousin Roberto Quintero), Quintero’s Salsa Project, titled Tributo a la Dimensión Latina.

José Sibaja is one of the most highly acclaimed Costa Rican trumpet players of his generation, celebrated by worldwide audiences and broadcast media in the classical, Latin, jazz, and pop music genres. His career ranges from international appearances as an orchestral soloist with Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, to travelling worldwide with Ricky Martin for the Vuelve and Livin’ la Vida Loca tours. Currently, Sibaja plays lead trumpet with the world-renowned Boston Brass.

Sibaja received his musical training at the New World School of the Arts and the University of Miami, and his vast musical repertoire and masterful artistry make him a prominent figure in a new generation of musicians. He has held positions as principal trumpet with the Miami Symphony, Sinfonietta de Caracas, and Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, as well as a position with the Dallas Brass.

With televised performances on the American Music Awards, the MTV Awards, the GRAMMY® Awards, and the Latin GRAMMY® Awards shows, as well as appearances on Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and numerous other TV shows, he has been seen in more that 40 countries. Sibaja’s talents are not limited to live audience performances: Having recorded with such artists as Ricky Martin, Alejandro Sanz, Luis Enrique, Rey Ruiz, Tito Nieves, Celia Cruz, and Gloria Estefan, among others, Sibaja redefines the idea of a concert artist with a rich mix of stylistic genres surpassing the very stereotype of today’s classical musician. Most currently, Sibaja can be heard with the Boston Brass on their Rewired, Reminiscing, and Simple Gifts CDs, as well as his solo records, Inner Voice and Spanish Air. 

Sibaja currently serves as a performing artist for the Yamaha Corporation, giving concerts, clinics, and master classes worldwide. Proclaimed internationally as “a major young talent, the next Wynton Marsalis,” Sibaja played his solo début at age 17 with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra after only five years of trumpet and musical training. 

Sibaja is Associate Professor of Trumpet for the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee).