Invited Performers and Speakers
Laura y Jocsan
Laura Aya (Laura Aya & Jocsán Mendoza)
Laura Aya is a Colombian singer-songwriter and Joropo dancer based in Vienna. With her powerful and versatile voice, she weaves the fiery essence of Joropo with influences from Latin American music and world music.
In 2019, she reached second place in the Austrian singing competition "The Voice." Since 2020, she has been present on numerous renowned stages and festivals throughout the country.
Through the fusion of the cuatro and vocals, Laura Aya celebrates identity, cultural heritage, and creative freedom—an intimate yet universal sonic journey that connects her roots with her inner landscape.
Amelia Bernal Osorio (Flute, Cronopius Trio)
Amelia, originally from Mexico, began her musical education at the Conservatory of the State of Puebla. As principal flutist, she toured with the Angelopolitana Chamber Orchestra in the USA (2012) and Italy (2013). In 2018, she settled in Austria, where she earned a diploma in Concert Performance with highest distinction at the Wagner Conservatory and won first prize at the International Prof. Dichler Competition in 2021. She is currently studying for a Master of Arts Education at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna. She has performed at various venues in Mexico, the USA, and Europe, including the Konzerthaus in Vienna.
Florencia Hernández
Florencia Hernández (Klavier, Cronopius Trio)
Florencia Hernández, from Chile, completed her Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She subsequently continued her education in Austria, specializing in Piano Pedagogy with a focus on Jazz and Popular Music at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
She is a prize-winner of several competitions, including the Claudio Arrau Piano Competition and the Intérpretes del Siglo XXI Competition. As a soloist and ensemble pianist, she has performed in important concert halls in Chile and Austria, including the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Teatro del Lago, the Musikverein, and the Konzerthaus Vienna.
Currently, she is completing a Master's degree in Instrumental (Vocal) Pedagogy at the mdw, alongside a Master's degree in Song Accompaniment at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna. In addition to her artistic activities, she teaches piano at the Kreuzenstein Music School.
Her concert activities include appearances in important concert halls and festivals in Chile and Austria, such as the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Teatro del Lago, Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Musikverein Vienna, both as a soloist and as an ensemble pianist in classical and popular music.
Sonia Hernández
Sonia, from Peru, began her musical education at the age of six under the guidance of her parents and learned to play several instruments at an early age. She studied Classical Guitar at the Universidad Nacional de Música in Lima, graduating with distinction. She continued her studies at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid and subsequently earned a Master's degree in Classical Guitar from the Mannes School of Music in New York with Michael Newman.
Her concert activity spans three continents, with performances in Peru, Europe, and North America, where she has established a name for herself as a soloist and educator.
She lives in Vienna and is currently completing a Master's degree in Ethnomusicology at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Her artistic focus lies in exploring Latin American sounds, particularly the music of her homeland Peru.
OperaTriptychon
Natalia Hurst (Opera Triptychon)
Natalia Hurst, born in Buenos Aires, is a singer and educator. She grew up in Argentina and lives in Vienna, where she completed her studies in Vocal and Instrumental Education at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with distinction.
Her artistic focus is on placing works from the classical repertoire into a new context. In 2020, she received an artist grant from the City of Vienna for the production of her performance Opera Triptychon, which she presented at WUK (Vienna, 2020), Teatro San Martín (Buenos Aires, 2021), Teatro Argentino de La Plata (2022), and Das Lot (Vienna, 2023). In this performance, she interpreted arias by Desdemona, Zerlina, Cio-Cio-San, and Pamina. Other projects include the song recital Letters to the New World (2008) under the patronage of the Argentine Embassy in Austria, as well as the cycle ¡Viva la Matria! (2017–2018), which she performed with pianist Anna Fedorova at the Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna.
Her album Songs of the Underworld has been released on Apple Music and Spotify; with this program, she has performed at the Volkstheater Rote Bar and at a benefit concert at the Vienna Stadthalle.
Sydney Hutchinson
Sydney Hutchinson is research associate in music history and theory at the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin and instructor in popular music at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She has published five books and numerous articles on Latin American music and dance, including the award-winning ethnography Tigers of a Different Stripe: Performing Gender in Dominican Music, based on a decade of field research. Currently she leads a project investigating musical, choreographic, and musicological exchange between Latin America and East Germany (http://secondworldmusic.wordpress.com).
Mariana Pedrozo
Mariana Pedrozo began her musical education in her native Patagonia. She studied Classical Concert Singing at the UNC in Mendoza, Argentina. In Austria, she continued her studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg in the class of Prof. John Thomasson, where she completed her Master's degree in Vocal Pedagogy. She pursued a further Master's degree in Concert Singing at the Anton Bruckner Private University.
Her artistic activity focuses on the field of chamber music and song, and she interprets a broad spectrum of vocal works.
Constanza Toledo holds a Master of Arts in Musicology from Leipzig University and a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Violin) from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2024 she received funding to complete an Erasmus+ semester at the University of Vienna and the 'Chile Crea' scholarship from the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile to complete her master's degree. Constanza led a research project funded by the same ministry titled “Sounding spaces: Cartography of Chilean art music activity between 1973 and 1990”, followed by its second phase “Sounding spaces in transition: Cartography of Chilean art music activity between 1990 and 2007”, creating a digital map of the art music scene in Chile during and after the military regime. She is currently leading a third state-funded research project in which children from two rural schools in central and southern Chile will create soundscape cartographic models as an exploratory ethnographic approach to their local environments.
Laura Valbuena
Laura Valbuena (Laura Valbuena Quintet)
Laura, saxophonist and clarinetist from Colombia, stands out for her versatility and deep understanding of various musical styles. She studied Classical Clarinet and Saxophone Folklore at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
Her artistic career has led her to share the stage with internationally renowned artists such as Ina Forsman, Juan Diego Flórez, Rubén Blades, Las Migas, and Jorge Drexler. In 2022, she was a featured artist at the Jazz al Parque Festival, one of the most significant jazz festivals in Latin America.
She is a Schagerl and Soundwear artist and was honored in 2020 as a cultural representative of her hometown, Ubaté (Colombia). She lives in Vienna, where she leads her own quintet and builds a musical bridge between jazz, Latin American music, and her folkloric roots.
Cronopius Trio
The Cronopius Trio was founded in 2022 by musicians living in Vienna, hailing from Mexico and Chile. Its members—Amelia Bernal (flute), Juan L. Cuamatzi (cello), and Florencia Hernández (piano)—have set themselves the goal of promoting the repertoire composed for this ensemble, which is rarely performed. Additionally, the trio's members host the concerts themselves to bridge the distance that often arises between audience and artists in concert halls, making the concert experience closer and more familiar by involving the audience and turning them into active listeners of the chamber music repertoire.
Juan López Cuamatzi (Cello), from Mexico, is a multi-instrumentalist (cello, electric bass, viola da gamba, piano, guitar) and composer. He was a member of the Angelopolitana Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Puebla, the BUAP Symphony Orchestra, and the Fo-Guang-Shan Orchestra Vienna. As a composer, his works were premiered at the "Leicht über Linz" festival (2022, 2023), and his large string quartet was premiered at the Brucknerhaus Linz.
Amelia Bernal Osorio (Flute) – detailed biography see above.
Florencia Hernández (Piano) – detailed biography see above.