Día de los Muertos

Sones de México Ensemble is the nation’s premier folk music group dedicated to preserving and celebrating Mexican ‘son’—a rich tradition encompassing regional styles like huapango, gustos, chilenas, and son jarocho. Founded in 1994 in Chicago’s historic Pilsen neighborhood, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit promotes Mexican folk culture through innovative performance, education, and outreach. 

The ensemble has toured extensively across the U.S. and internationally, with performances at Carnegie Hall, the Getty Museum, and the Kennedy Center. They’ve released six acclaimed albums, including the GRAMMY®- and Latin GRAMMY®-nominated Esta Tierra Es Tuya (2007), and 13 B’ak’tun (2013), marking the new Mayan calendar era. Their children’s album Fiesta Mexicana earned a Parents’ Choice™ Award. 

In 2015, they composed and performed a new live score for Sergei Eisenstein’s restored 1931 silent film ¡Que Viva México! 

Led by founding members Juan Díes and Victor Pichardo, the six-member ensemble includes Zacbé Pichardo, Eréndira Izguerra, Eric Hines, and Rudy Piñon—all multi-instrumentalists and educators proficient in over 80 traditional instruments. 

Their award-winning educational programs include residencies, workshops, and school concerts that blend music with lessons in Mexican history and heritage. Sones de México was named Best Latin Entertainer by the Chicago Music Awards for four consecutive years. 

Photo by: Nadine Sherman

Marina López is a Mexico City–born composer, educator, and writer whose work blends cultural memory, experimental systems, and reimagined Western forms to create immersive musical worlds.

A recipient of the Virginia B. Toulmin Orchestral Composition Commission, her Music has been played by orchestras across the country. Amongst them, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (Summermusik), the American Composers’ Orchestra, and the Monterey Symphony Orchestra.

Now based in Pittsburgh, PA, she is intimately involved with the local musical community. She has collaborated with many local acts such as the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, Nat28 Ensemble, the Carnegie Mellon University Contemporary Ensemble, the Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic, Resonance Works, and Kamratōn Ensemble.

Her first opera, ‘Not Our First American,’ premiered at Pittsburgh Opera on April 13th, 2019, as part of Co-Opera, a year-long collaboration between Pittsburgh Opera and Carnegie Mellon’s Music and Drama departments. Her second opera, ‘Rosa,’ premiered in December 2022 by Boston-based opera company Whitesnake Projects.

From March to April of 2023, she was awarded a 50th Anniversary Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, Virginia. She was also a 2025 Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (GLFCAM) Balheast Eeble Fellow.

She approaches each piece as its own system, a universe with its own set of rules that govern its unfolding through time. Her goal is always to make these systems intuitively perceptible to the audience. She is also interested in deconstructing and reconfiguring Western classical musical forms in unexpected ways.