Yolanda is an international prize-winning pianist and an extraordinary highly sought-after collaborative pianist. A native of Xalapa, Mexico.

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She has performed concertos with Xalapa Symphony Orchestra and CSU Symphony orchestra and has participated as a collaborative pianist of the Veracruz State Youth Orchestra, CSU Symphony Orchestra, and CU Symphony Orchestra. Yolanda has performed at international chamber music festivals such as the Académie Musicale de Morges in Switzerland, Orvieto Musica in Italy, San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival, Aguas Calientes Chamber Music Festival in Mexico, Bowdoin International Music Festival in the US, Toronto Creative Music Lab in Canada, and Festival Quito Cellos in Ecuador. She has performed and given masterclasses at the University of Veracruz, the International Music Festival in Loja, Ecuador, and Cambrian College School of Music. 

She was a Fulbright Scholar from 2012-2014, obtained an Academic Excellence grant awarded by the state of Veracruz in Mexico, and received recognition from CSU as the Outstanding Graduate student for her 4.0 average during her masters' degree. She was a prize winner at the Chamber Music National Competition in Mexico City, first and second prize at the CSU concerto competition, winner of the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and two-time finalist at the "María Clara Cullell" International Piano Competition, in San José, Costa Rica. She was a recipient of the Manuel M. Ponce award for the best chamber music group at the Chamber Music Festival in Aguas Calientes, Mexico, and a prize winner in the chamber music division of the Kiwanis Festival in London, Canada. 

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Yolanda was a full-time collaborative pianist at the Institute of Music of Veracruz State. She has performed extensively as a chamber musician and has toured across the Midwest with Trio Loja and across Ontario with the Carnyx Trio, and Kuyum Ensemble.

 

Her most recent project, Collaborativepianists (in partnership with the Chinese-Canadian pianist Kimly Wang), was created in 2020. Collaborativepianists is a platform with affiliated social media accounts helping to promote the diversity of the collaborative piano community by promoting their work at no cost. This same platform is now also offering events for the collaborative piano community and audiences across the globe. Their first and most recent event was CyberCollab2021. They gathered videos of collaborative performances from applicants around the world and presented them interactively as a Zoom concert, where the attendants were able to vote for their favourite performance. Prizes were available for audiences attending the Zoom event, social media expectators,  and performers.  

 

Yolanda obtained her DMA in collaborative piano from the University of Western Ontario in Canada where she was also a graduate assistant, MM in piano performance/collaborative piano from Colorado State University, and BM in piano performance from the University of Veracruz. Between 2014-2015 she was mentored by Margaret McDonald, Alexandra Nguyen, and Mitsumi Moteki at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She currently works as a private Collaborative Pianist at the University of Western Ontario working both with vocalists and instrumentalists, as well as music director of Knox. St. Andrews in Dutton, Ontario.