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Latino Arts Showcases Local And International Talent In Guitar Festival

Edel Muñoz

Among the many cultural events that Milwaukee’s Latino Arts has put on over the years, the musical offerings are among the most distinctive.

Thanks to the efforts of multi-instrumentalist and teacher Dinorah Marquez, the Latino Arts strings program has been providing top-notch education, free of charge, to low-income Latino students across Milwaukee.

The music program expanded last year to include a guitar festival for area youth. It was so successful that it was expanded this year to include not only a competition for the students, but master classes for the whole community. Friday night, the winners of the competition will play a concert along with Nemanja Ostojic and guitar virtuoso Edel Muñoz, who is also on the faculty of the string program.

Muñoz and Marquez joined Lake Effect's Bonnie North in the studio to play classical guitar music and talk about the guitar festival.

"Being in this country ,we don't get to learn, we don't have heritage education. And so not only does [the program] do that for us, but it also strengthens us and takes us out to the greater community and helps us become ambassadors of our cultures," Marquez says.

Guitarist Edel Muñoz will play a concert along with Nemanja Ostojic and the winners of the second annual Latino Arts guitar competition Friday night at the United Community Center on the near south side.  Dinorah Marquez was recently honored with the state’s 2015 MLK Heritage Award, along with civil rights pioneer Vel Phillips. 

Audrey is a WUWM host and producer for Lake Effect.
Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.