• Kantuta Concerts: Opus 1 | Tickets are avaiable now

    • Foundation For
    Bolivian Artists

    Supporting Musicians through Performing Opportunities
    Learn More

    Our Mission

    Foundation for Bolivian Artists, Inc., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting Bolivian musicians. Through our series, Kantuta Concerts, our primary objective is to create a vibrant community of musicians and provide them with invaluable exposure on the world's most prestigious stages. By showcasing their exceptional talent to diverse audiences, we aim to propel their musical careers to new heights. Our organization is committed to nurturing the artistic growth of these individuals, fostering collaboration, and connecting them with professionals who can further support their development. With a strong emphasis on empowerment and cultural exchange, we strive to uplift these musicians and contribute to the global music landscape.

    NEWS

    We are currently accepting applications for
    Kantuta Concerts: Opus 1

    Application Deadline: Sept 15
    Recipient Announcement: Oct 15

    APPLY

    Kantuta Concerts: Opus 1

    Featuring Sergio Escalera Soria, piano
    the First Recital Scholarship Recipient
    of Foundation for Bolivian Artists, Inc.

    March 1, 2024, 7:30PM
    Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
    129 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023

    For Tickets

    Dr. Priscila Navarro
    Pianist

    Described as “a phenomenal talent” by the Atlanta Audio Club, pianist Priscila Navarro is the first prize winner of several international competitions, including the Liszt-Garritson International Competition in Baltimore, Maryland, Beethoven Sonata Competition in Tennessee, Chopin International Competition of Texas, Artist Series of Sarasota, Florida, Imola City Awards, Italy, and the Heida Hermanns International Music Competition in Connecticut. Priscila made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in 2013 as an international competition winner and returned there in 2022 for further concerts. She received a Special Bach prize at the International City of Vigo Competition in Spain, where she was one of five finalists from over 400 participating pianists, with a jury presided by Martha Argerich. Her performances in England last summer were streamed on BBC public radio as well as the Medici TV channel.

    Last year, Priscila made her Kennedy Center debut with a sold-out concer. She also received the Christa-Marshall Bach Prize at the Bach competition in Leipzig, a prize founded by a descendant of the Bach family in one of the oldest and most prestigious competitions honoring Bach.

    Highlights of this season include a concert featuring works by Cuban American composer Tania Leon, as well as soloist with orchestras throughout the US and South America. Priscila also recently won the Astral Artists competition, joining their roster alongside other phenomenal artists. Priscila is a champion and advocate of Latin American music, conducting research and creative activities to further the propagation of Latin American art. Her most recent project included the development of a piano method for children based on Peruvian folk tunes. This past season, she presented a program of Latin American dances at the Bravo Piano Festival in Hilton Head Island.

    As a chamber musician, Priscila regularly performs with a wide variety of musicians. She did a tour of Peru with violist Jodi Levitz, professor of viola at the University of Miami. Priscila forms a piano duet with Dr. Michael Baron. Their first album was released this December 2021 with the MSR Classics label, followed by a Carnegie Hall premiere concert in March 2022. They have received five-star reviews from the Atlanta Audio Club and Fanfare Magazine.

    Priscila holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the Frost School of Music, where she also completed Master and Artist Diploma degrees as a student of Santiago Rodriguez and Kevin Kenner. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Florida Gulf Coast University where she studied with Dr. Michael Baron. Priscila began her music studies at the age of 9, in the National Conservatory of Peru with Professor Lydia Hung.

    Besides her busy performance career, Priscila is a passionate pedagogue and has been on the jury at several international competitions, including the Chopin International Competition for Latin American pianists, the Heida Hermanns International Competition, the Piano Stars competition and the Parnassus International Competition. She is currently the artistic director of the Parnassus Music Society, organizing cultural events throughout Peru and Latin America. This fall, she joined the faculty at Whitworth University as director of keyboard studies.

    Dr. Isabel Dobarro
    Pianist

    Recent winner of the Woman to Follow in Culture 2021 Prize and Melómano de Oro, Dr. Isabel Dobarro has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music concerts at the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Rachmaninoff Hall at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Sala Manuel de Falla, Ateneo de Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana, and Sala Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Bolzano, Italy, among others. She was a prizewinner at the American Protegé International Piano and Strings Competition (2nd Prize), Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition (3rd Prize), Ciutat de Berga International Competition (1st Prize) and the Cidade do Fundao Piano International Competition (1st Prize), as well as the recipient of the Jorge Bolet Distinguished Performer Award at the Stony Brook International Piano Festival.

    Her activism for women composers’ music has led her to create with mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna the initiative Women in Music, which organizes cultural exchanges through the music of women composers. In these concerts, Tonna and Dobarro collaborated with the NY Philharmonic Very Young Composers Program, New York Women Composers, American Space, International Institute, Asociación de Mujeresen la Música and the Cultural Program of the Portugal Embassy in Spain. She has also performed the Clara Schumann Piano Concerto with the OSSB orchestra at the prestigious Palau de la Música Catalana, she will premiere the Louise-HeritteViardot Quartets in Spain, and has presented works by women composers in numerous solo recitals. For her work in the promotion of women composers, she has been invited to speak and play at the prestigious Women Now conference, along with Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Kennedy, and she has given numerous lectures on the topic at the Universidad de Costa Rica, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, III Encuentro María de Pablos, among others. Her interest for contemporary music has led her to premiere works by Eduardo Soutullo, Octavio Vázquez, Pamela Sklar, Sonia Megías, Michael Boyman, Julia Dopico, Lars Graugard, Ana Isabel Vázquez Silva, Carme Rodríguez, María Camahort, Silvia Llanas Rich, among others. She is a frequent performer of works both for solo and ensemble of George Crumb, Juan Antonio Simarro, Consuelo Díez, Mercedes Zavala, Alexa Babakhanian, Miguel Bustamante, Benet Casablancas, Cristóbal Halffter, Luis de Pablo, Antón García Abril, Carmelo Bernaola, Debra Kaye, Marga Richter, Mary-Ann Joyce, among others.

    Isabel has taught masterclasses at the Festival de Ópera de Morelia, Curso de Perfeccionamiento Pianístico de Veracruz, Conservatorio Superior de Música de A Coruña, Manuel Peleteiro Conservatory and New York University’s Undergraduate Collegium. She has also given lectures and speeches at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, United Nations General Assembly, Harvard University, ECOSOC Youth Forum, European Parliament within the European Arts Forum, I Jornadas Sostenibilidad e InstitucionesCulturales, University of Michigan,IE University in Madrid, University of Vechta, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, and Casina Pio IV at the Vatican. In 2016, she organized the Festival Granados: Composer, Pedagogue, and Virtuoso at New York University, a series of lectures and concerts about Enrique Granados in which she premiered a newly reconstructed version for piano quintet of Granados’ Concierto Patético by composer Sergi Casanelles. She has published for Harvard University-Observatorio Instituto Cervantes, IIASA Institute in Vienna, or Global Square Magazine, among other publications. Her musical studies include degrees from New York University (where she started teaching at age 19 and earned a Ph.D.), Manhattan School of Music, and Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid.

    Dr. Juan Pablo Andrade
    Pianist

    Costa Rican pianist Juan Pablo Andrade maintains a very active career as a recitalist, concerto soloist, collaborative artist, clinician and adjudicator. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the Costa Rican National Prize of Music, the highest recognition given to a musician by the Costa Rican Ministry of Culture. Other awards include the First Prize at the Artlivre International Piano Competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and the First Prize in the Carlos Enrique Vargas National Piano Competition in CR. As a student he received First Prize in the Concert of Soloists Competition at Arizona State University, First Prize at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Concerto Competition, and Second Prize in the University of Costa Rica Concerto Competition.

    He has performed as a soloist with the South Bend Symphony (IN), the Greensboro Symphony (NC), the Powder River Symphony (WY) the University of Costa Rica Symphony, the Cartago Symphony (CR), the Central American Symphony, the Bolivian National Symphony, the Costa Rican Youth Symphony, and on many occasions with the Costa Rican National Symphony. Recent concerto performances include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Conductors he has collaborated with include Irwin Hoffmann, Chosei Komatsu, Kaisa Roose, Norman Gamboa, Ricardo del Carmen, Alejandro Gutierrez, Gabriela Mora, Ivan Arguedas, Mathew Troy and Timothy Russel. As a recitalist he has appeared throughout the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Serbia, Norway, Greece and Spain. Recent performances include solo recitals at the Yehudi Menuhin Forum in Bern, Switzerland, and at the World Piano Conference in Novy Sad, Serbia. Many of his performances have been recorded and broadcasted by the Phoenix Classical Radio Station KBAK, Costa Rican University Radio and Costa Rican National Television. He is also a very active chamber musician and a member of the Aegina Trio with Dr. Betul Soykan and Dr. Katherine Decker. His recent duo CD titled War to Peace, (Centaur Records 3666) and recorded together with violinist Betul Soykan, features works by Ferguson, Prokofiev and Messiaen and received very favorable reviews in Fanfare magazine. Other musicians he has collaborated with include Margaret Lattimore, Kenneth Grant, Bonita Boyd and Frederic St. Pierre.

    Dr. Andrade is a Professor of Piano at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and has previously served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Idaho State University and Lecturer of Piano at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He obtained his Bachelors and Licenciatura in Music degrees from the University of Costa Rica, the Master of Music from Arizona State University, an Artist Diploma from Indiana University-South Bend, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His mentors include Gerardo Duarte, Robert Hamilton, Alexander Toradze and John Salmon. Dr. Andrade is also a faculty member at the SemperMusic International Summer Festival in the Italian Alps, and a frequent guest at the Global Summer Institute of Music in Richmond, VA, and Curso de Perfeccionamiento de Piano EAFIT, in Medellin, Colombia. He is the founder and artistic director of the newly created La Frontera International Piano Conference, in Brownsville, Texas.
    • Solo recital in one of New York City’s top venues
    • Transportation to and from New York City
    • Room & board
    • Post-concert reception
    • Exposure and press