Performances
Nov 2
Performance Run Time: 3 hours including intermission.
This year, the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance is thrilled to present "La Magia del Cuatro y Güiro" (The Magic of the Cuatro and Güiro) for its 26th Annual National Cuatro Festival. This unique concert will highlight the enchanting sounds of Puerto Rico’s cuatro music while also showcasing the güiro, a traditional percussion instrument integral to various Latin American music styles, particularly Puerto Rican folk genres like plena and salsa.
The National Cuatro Festival will feature a captivating blend of the cuatro (by Puerto Rico's legendary Modesto Nieves) and the güiro, celebrating the artistry of renowned güireros such as Neftali Ortiz, Rosaura Batista, and Monica Nieves. These musicians have mastered the güiro and captured the imagination of audiences in Puerto Rico and beyond.
Additionally, the festival will include a spectacular performance by Luis Sanz, one of Puerto Rico’s esteemed cuatristas. Accompanied by his band, which includes the return of guitarist and vocalist Lisvette Sanz, Luis Sanz will deliver a dynamic fusion of contemporary and traditional cuatro music. Their performance promises to resonate with a new generation while honoring the rich heritage of Puerto Rico’s musical roots.
Born on August 2, 1994, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, award-winning artist Luis Sanz is a renowned cuatro player, composer, co-founder of the Hermanos Sanz band, and professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. His exceptional talent in improvisation and creative development has led him to compose works for symphony orchestra and collaborate with prominent artists like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Residente of “Calle 13,” Ednita Nazario, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Bernie Williams, Víctor Manuelle, Elvis Crespo, José Nogueras, Danny Rivera, Hermes Croatto, El Gran Combo de PR, Kany García, Lucecita Benítez, and many others.
Luis began playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at the age of four, and by nine, he had performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. His compositions have been performed in China, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, South America, and the United States. He headlined the Latin Grammy Awards show in 2017 with Residente and collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda on music for a new film about Puerto Rican culture. In 2018, he composed the film score and music performance for the documentary “Pa’ Lante.” He has produced six recording albums.
Recognized by the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance of Chicago for his outstanding contributions to the cuatro. Luis was also selected as the ambassador of the cuatro for the Puerto Rican Parade in New York. He received the Chancellor’s Artpreneur Grant from the Kenan Institute for the Arts at UNCSA in 2019. His album "Cuatro Sinfónico" was named one of the top 5 in the 2019 Best Puerto Rican Recordings category by the “Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular.”
Luis earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music under the mentorship of Alfonso Fuentes. Simultaneously, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Bass Performance with a minor in Music Education from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, studying with Professor Samuel Morales. He also holds a Master’s degree in Music Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where he studied with Professor Lawrence Dillon.
Recently, Luis released his innovative music project, Cuatro Beats, which blends Puerto Rican folk sounds with rap to expand the repertoire of the Puerto Rican cuatro. Listeners can enjoy chill instrumental trap music infused with an experimental and fresh cuatro sound. The official music video for Cuatro Beats, created using Artificial Intelligence (AI), is available on his YouTube channel Luis Sanz Music. Luis continues to pave new paths, connecting traditional Puerto Rican sounds with genres such as classical, urban, jazz, rock, and pop.
The great cuatrista and composer Modesto Nieves Fuentes was born on April 8, 1951, in Naranjito, Puerto Rico. He is the son of Modesto Nieves Rosado and Marcela Fuentes Santiago. They immigrated with his family to New Jersey when he was 8. At 13, he learned to play some cuatro songs and chords with his uncle Juan Nieves, who was right-handed, and followed in his footsteps as a cuatro player.
Seeing his interest and skill in the instrument, his family sent him a Cuatro from Puerto Rico. In 1965, the family moved to Pennsylvania and, and in 1970, they returned to Puerto Rico.
He met Francisco López Cruz at a concert in Aibonito, who invited him to a cuatro contest for the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.
Modesto participated in several competitions in the 1970s; when he took third place in one of them, he won cuatro lessons with Don Paquito, who taught him to play left-handed and encouraged him to play the cuatro in his favor.
He also played with the Areyto Folkloric Ballet, founded by Irene McLean, her husband, and López Cruz. Modesto still accompanies the Ballet, with which he has traveled the world. He has been a member of the Orquesta Criolla Mapeyé since 1978 and has recorded with them several times.
He has been a member of the Orquesta Criolla Mapeyé since 1978 and has also recorded with them.
Modesto Nieves also plays the tiple and the mandonúa, instruments that he learned with Don Julio Negrón, a great musician and maker of musical instruments from Morovis, Puerto Rico.
In 1990, he formed the group Herencia Musical with his children Mónika, Natalia, and Christian and his brothers-in-law Edgardo and Raúl Maldonado. Herencia Musical has represented the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and Puerto Rico in cultural missions and international concerts. He also accompanies his children, Mónika and Christian, when they perform as soloists.
Lisvette, is a musician and songwriter from Puerto Rico. She is celebrated as an ambassador of Puerto Rican folk music and culture. Since 2006, she has been co-founder and a member of Hermanos Sanz, an internationally recognized band. Her talent has led her to participate in prominent festivals in Europe, Cuba, and the United States, performing at prestigious theaters and stages. She studied classical guitar and Music Education with a concentration in choir conducting at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico. She has a Masters in Counseling Psychology from the Universidad Interamericana and is a certified and licensed psychologist.
Her versatile career includes appearances on television and radio. From 2005 to 2008, she was a correspondent for WMIZ 1270 AM on the program Variedades 97 Milenio in Vineland, New Jersey. She also served as a television host for three years on the program “Fiesta Cultural” (2017-2019) with Decimania. Since 2009, she has collaborated and participated with Hermanos Sanz in the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra concerts conducted by Maestro Roselín Pabón.
She currently participated in two albums, “Marcando la Historia” and “Ponte en Pie”. Additionally, she has participated in workshops at various schools and universities in Puerto Rico and the US. Since 2009, she has taught guitar and piano. She was the founder and director of the CeDin Children's Choir (2014-2019) at the Universidad Interamericana Recinto Metro Laboratory School.
At TASIS Dorado School, Lisvette taught elementary theater, directing successful musicals such as Moana Jr., 101 Dalmatians, and Lion King, as well as writing scripts and creating artistic presentations for children.
Lisvette is also the Owner and COO of Obra Records, where she serves as project manager, consultant, and distributor advisor. In this capacity, she supports projects and artists from Puerto Rico and Latin America.
The young güirista, improvising troubadour, and cuatrista Rosaura Batista Torres was born on March 26, 1989 in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
In 2000, she began practicing güiro. Her first professional experience was at the age of 12 in a competition at the twenty-seventh Ponce Crafts Fair. That same year, thanks to her remarkable ability to play her instrument, she was chosen for the Güiro Orchestra of Puerto Rico, where she was a güirista and a troubadour for eight years.
She has won several awards in different güiro competitions on the island and was crowned two-time champion in the Quebradillas Güiro Festival competition.
While at the University, she was a troubadour and cuatrista in the String Orchestra of the Mayagüez University Campus. She's had the opportunity to play with different groups of great cuatristas from Puerto Rico and has traveled around the world representing women in the güiro.
In 2013, she began teaching güiro and cuatro at the Francisco López Cruz Foundation in old San Juan, where she worked for five years and obtained the highest enrollment of students in her four güiro groups.In that same year, she became the güirista of the Trovadora Victoria Sanabria group, to which she belonged for seven years. In 2015, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture recognized Rosaura Batista in commemorating the Sixth Güiro Week for contributing to this instrument's dissemination, appreciation, and enrichment.
Rosaura has participated with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, directed by maestro Roselyn Pabón, where she has performed in concerts as a troubadour and güirista. In December 2020, she performed at the Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Concert with Versos de Mujer, which Telemundo televised.
She's currently a güirista and troubadour of Versos de Mujer, a Puerto Rican music group whose members are all women.
Born on December 19, 1985, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to Beatriz Maldonado and the cuatrista and composer Modesto Nieves, Monika's career began when, at four years old, she took up the Puerto Rican güiro. Whenever her father had an event, she wanted to play the Güicharo.
In second grade, her teachers discovered that she had a great talent for singing and she obtained 1st place in the school contest, "La Semana de la Lengua".
At age 7, she recorded an album with her father and brother, Christian Nieves, with their family music group, Herencia Musical. As a family, they were invited to public events and festivals outside of PR and concerts with renowned artists such as Wilkins, Hacindo Punto en Otro Son, Tony Croato, and many more.
At around nine years old, she began recording several productions with the Costumbrista Poet Don Manuel Rivera Cátala, composer of "Los Zapatos de Mi Viejo" and "Serenata a mi Abuelita."
At 11 years old she became interested in the drums. Her uncle Raúl Maldonado, percussionist at Herencia Musical and drum professor at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, encouraged her to be part of her school band as a drummer in which she served for 3 years at her middle school.
At the age of 12, she became the Areyto Folkloric Ballet's lead voice; with them, she visited Spain, England, Italy, the United States, and the Dominican Republic. She has performed in all the Fine Arts Centers in Puerto Rico, Festivals outside of PR, and in different local and international TV programs.
At only 13 years old, she stood out as a singer-songwriter in the Spanish rock group Puerto Raíces, which opened great doors in the musical commercial field. They won competitions such as the "Coors Light Tocando Tierra," and three years later, with their first record production in hand, the multinational Sony Discos signed them. They performed on prestigious stages in Puerto Rico and cities like Miami, Los Angeles, Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago. They were nominated as Breakthrough Artist at the "Premios Lo Nuestro" in Miami and National Rock Band at the "Premios Tu Música" in PR. She's shared the stage with bands such as Los Pericos, Aterciopelados, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Ha*Ash, Cultura Profética, La Secta, Vivanativa, Fiel a la Vega, and others. Adding more achievements to its success, the Foundation for Popular Culture of Puerto Rico highlighted the production of Puerto Raíces as one of the Best 20 in Puerto Rico.
In 2003, Monika entered the University of Puerto Rico where she studied music, communications, and drama. There, she joined the Creole Ensemble of the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras campus as a güirera and vocalist, directed by Prof. Orlando Laureano.
In 2004, she was invited to the Banco Popular Special "En Mi País" alongside Mapeyé and Danny Rivera and off stage with Tommy Torres, José Feliciano, Julieta Venegas, Ednita Nazario, La India, Sin Bandera, Alejandro Fernández, Rubén Blades, Oscar de León, Lucecita Benítez and the late singer-songwriter Soraya.
Developing new dreams, in 2007, she took on a career as a soloist, and her band "Pasajeros del Tren" was born, opening doors to clubs, discos, pubs, and public and private events. She also collaborated as a vocal arranger and backing vocalist for rock bands, such as "Si Señor," and artists of the urban genre, such as Zion, under the tutelage of the director and famous trumpeter Humberto Ramírez.
She, alongside her brother Christian Nieves and the Cuatrista Quique Domenech group, honored the Puerto Rican superstar Ricky Martin at the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian sometime later.
In 2010, they were invited to film the opening of the international talent show Que Viva, produced by Marc Anthony, Jennifer López, and Jamie King.
She also collaborated as a guest in the concert of singer-songwriter Pedro Capó at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico.
In 2013, Monika began working on her first production as a soloist. That same year, she was chosen as guitarist for the concert band of the Spanish singer-songwriter Antonio Orozco. She performed at the Center of Fine Arts and the Coliseum of Puerto Rico.
In 2014, she participated in the Banco Popular Special, "Que Lindo es Puerto Rico," performing as a güirera in the song "Allá en la Altura" alongside Kany García.
In 2015, she, along with Herencia Musical, Jerry Medina, and his daughter Kianí Medina, sang the Puerto Rican Anthem at the invitation of maestro Draco Rosa for the World's Best 10k.
Shortly after, she took charge of the opening of the concert "El Regreso de Francisco Céspedes" at the Center of Fine Arts of Puerto Rico. In December of that same year, the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Glenn Monroig invited her to his concert "Desenchufao," where they performed a duet of one of his songs.
In 2016, Herencia Musical presented its 3rd production, "Nace." This time, including her sister Natalia Nieves, a soprano who graduated from the PR Conservatory.
In 2016, her first solo album, Pasajeros del Tren, was released, which included 10 songs written by her in a fusion of jíbaro melodies and Afro-Caribbean rhythms on a pop rock base. Essential parts of the production of this album were her brother Christian Nieves, Jonathan Cotto (son of the troubadour Mariano Cotto), and the guitarist (director of Ednita Nazario) Juan Carlos Rodriguez.
Born on January 13, 1983, son of Elena Berrios Vazquez and the Cuatrista from Barranquilla Neftalí Ortiz Torres.
Talí, as he is affectionately called, took up the güiro when he was just 13 years old. On a November night in 1996, his father, Neftalí, entrusted him with performing a concert with the Danza Mi Güiro the following day, even though Talí had never played a musical instrument.
The challenge was so great that his late uncle, a great guitarist and younger brother of Neftalí, arrived before the performance to show him the accompaniment techniques for the Danza Mi Güiro.
Talí spent those Christmases of 1996 studying Puerto Rican popular music under the tutelage of his father and the legendary guitarist Polo Ocasio, who formed a musical cast for many families and friends, giving concerts at their respective residences. At that moment, Talí became fully infected with music and love for the vegetable instrument.
In January 1997, at just 14 years old, Talí began playing formally with his father and the Casabe Conjunto. At the end of that month Talí competed for the first time in a Güiro competition in San Lorenzo, receiving 1st place.
It was not until the summer of 1997 that Talí obtained another first prize in his second Güiro competition in the town of Comerio, which was part of the Jíbaro Comerieño Festival. Cuatrista maestro Edwin Colon Zayas and his Taller Campesino provided musical accompaniment for this competition. By November of that same year, Talí received an invitation from maestro Edwin Colon to join the Taller Campesino group as a Güirista.
In 1997, Talí began to learn the double bass, one of the primary instruments in his musical training.
In 1998, he recorded for the first time as a guitarist and bassist in a musical production directed by his father, Neftali Ortiz, called Raíces Puertorriqueñas, where he made a compendium of the great talents of the new generation for Puerto Rican trova.
In 1999, Talí participated as bassist in the famous musical work Al Son de un Bolero, directed by the Gíbaro Folkloric Ballet of Puerto Rico and held at the San Juan Fine Arts Center.
In 2000, Talí recorded with the master composer and arranger Angel "Cuco" Peña in the prestigious musical production of the Banco Popular of Puerto Rico, dedicated to the music legend: José Feliciano, titled: GUITARRA MIA
In 2000 he began his university studies in Business Administration and received his bachelor's degree with a 2nd degree in Medical Billing.
In 2002, Talí competed for the first time in the National Güiro Competition in Peñuelas, receiving first place.
In 2003, he retired from Taller Campesino, completing a seven-year musical career with six record productions. He then became a Güirista member for "El Jíbaro" Andrés Jimenez, which has been active for 21 years.
From 2004 to 2012, as an already formalized bassist for several local bands of new trova and rock in Spanish, he participated in countless concerts and events nationwide.
In 2013, he developed a duo concept with the Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Monika Nieves, in which Talí not only worked as a bassist but also as a percussionist and singer.
In 2015, he began to serve as a bassist and guitarist for the Tribute to Marc Anthony project led by LUVA.
In 2016, Talí was summoned by the Urban Artist RESIDENTE to record a print of the Puerto Rican Güiro in the famous musical single LOS HIJOS DEL CAÑAVERAL
After the passage of Hurricane María in November 2017, Talí inaugurated the Latin Grammy Awards with RESIDENTE and an entourage of 50 of the best musicians in Puerto Rico.
In 2020, he founded the first virtual Puerto Rican güiro academy called:
The Güiro Academy. The Academy remains proactive in educating about the techniques of formal and evolutionary development on the musical art of the Puerto Rican Güiro instrument.
Talí Ortiz, as a Güirista, has recorded and collaborated musically with artists of the stature of; Andrés Jiménez, Plena Libre, Plenéalo, Lucecita Benitez, José Feliciano, Cheo Feliciano, Felito Felix, Julito Rodriguez, Manny Manuel, Antonio Caban Vale, Victoria Sanabria, Edwin Colón Zayas, Wilito Otero, Juan Vélez, Andrés Jiménez, Melina León, La India, Danny Rivera, Mercedes Sosa, Andy Montañez, Ismael Miranda, Chucho Avellanet, Angel Cuco Peña, Gíbaro de Puerto Rico, Güay Ciba, Quique Domenech, Tony Croatto, Olga Tañon, Elvis Crespo, Marcella Pinella, Pedro Guzmán, Christian Nieves, La Puerto Rican Power, Gilberto Santarosa, Residente, Ricky Martin, la Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico entre otros grandes artista
The trovador and guitarist José Rivera Marrero, known as “Ruiseñor Moroveño,” is one of the most talented young improvisers in Puerto Rico. José was the founder of the group Juventud Boricua and his current musical project called Fusión Jíbara. He has participated in several musical groups such as Cultura Nueva, Contrapunto, Irvin Santiago and his group, Conjunto Típico Moroveño, Entre Amigos, among others. He has shared the stage with musicians like Edwin Colón Zayas, Grupo Mapeyé, Irvin Santiago, Ricardo Pons, Christian Nieves, Luis Sanz, Decimanía, among others. Additionally, José has been part of projects such as the NeoMed Center Christmas Special, Banco Popular of PR Special, Decimagníficos, Concierto Belén Viviente, Cantores y Palabreros, Aceleración Musical, Revive la Música, and Segundo Congreso Iberoamericano de la Décima and Verso Improvisado, among others.
José offers classes of trova, guitar, cuatro, and güiro at the Diógenes Colón Gómez Cultural Center in Morovis. He has had the opportunity to have students who won competitions in cuatro and trova and to represent Puerto Rico in places like Chicago, North Carolina, and Cuba, along with musicians such as Luis Sanz, Christian Nieves, Omar Santiago, and Roberto Silva. Some of his most important achievements are: Campeón del Concurso Nacional de Trovadores Jóvenes del ICP (2021), Campeón del Concurso de Trovadores del Festival de la China in Las Marías (2022), Dedicatoria del Festival de Cuatristas y Trovadores de Morovis (2023), among others.
He is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Popular Music with a minor in Education at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus. He is 19 years old and a musician in training, passionate about music, education, and Puerto Rican culture.