Collaborators in the IOHIO
Cicely Winter, Director (Cecilia in Spanish) grew up in the state of Michigan, has lived in Oaxaca since 1972, and became a nationalized Mexican citizen in 2008. She played the piano by ear from the age of four and started piano lessons when she was seven. She studied piano and harpsichord at Smith College and the University of Michigan, where she obtained a B.A. in Music and an M.A. in European History, and later studied piano performance at the post-graduate level in the School of Music at Indiana University.
In 2000 with the support of the philanthropist Alfredo Harp Helú, the Instituto de Órganos Históricos de Oaxaca A.C. (IOHIO) was established as a non-profit organization and since then Cicely has served as its director. She taught IOHIO organ students in collective classes for several years and organizes concerts, festivals, and organ-related events regularly. Her work to promote the organs may be appreciated through her CD “Música Oaxaqueña en el Órgano de la Catedral de Oaxaca” in collaboration with the percussionist Valentín Hernández (2013) and her book Música Regional Oaxaqueña de ayer y hoy, transcripciones para órgano y piano (2018, 2023).
Cicely has been a member of the Comisión Diocesano de Bienes Culturales y Arte Religioso (commission dedicated to the conservation of church art) since its founding in 2017 with the support of the former and current Archbishops of Oaxaca.
Joel Antonio Vásquez González, Project Coordinator (Oaxaca 1981), studied music in the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. He continued his studies with Christophe Lafontaine (piano) and Cesar Guzmán and Ricardo Rodys (organ) in the IOHIO Music Academy (2004–2007). In 2008—2009 he studied organ with Rodrigo Treviño in the Escuela Nacional de Música (UNAM). He taught piano and organ to children from villages with restored organs and to young music students who years later went on to study at the university level. He later participated and offered assistance in Cicely Winter’s group organ classes in the Jalatlaco and Soledad churches. He has participated in master classes offered by Kimberly Marshall, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, and Guy Bovet during the Organ and Early Music Festivals of the IOHIO. He plays the mass in the Oaxaca Cathedral and has sung in the Gregorian chant group “Schola Cantorum Antequerensis” and the Oaxaca City Chorus.
Joel has collaborated with the IOHIO since 2009 in various capacities: teaching organ and piano; cleaning, conserving, and analyzing the unrestored organs; tuning and maintaining the restored organs; filming and editing concert videos; helping with accounting and deskwork; and participating in concerts as both organist and singer.
Isaí Guzmán Hernández, Coordinator of Social Media and Organ Maintenance (Oaxaca, 1996), studied in the CEDART high school (“Centro de Educación Artística Miguel Cabrera”). He demonstrated interest in the Oaxaca organs as a young teenager, leading to participation as a IOHIO scholarship student beginning in 2010 to study piano and organ with organist Joel Vásquez. In 2016-2017 he studied with the Dominican friars of the Santiago Province in the convent of San Francisco del Rincón, Guanajuato. His further studies include classes in piano, solfege and harmony with Pierre-Arnaud Le Guérinel in 2017; harpsichord lessons, shared with a fellow student, offered by Dr. James Wyly in 2017-2018; participation in master classes with Andrés Cea Galán on the organs of the Mexico City Cathedral in 2018; and participation in Cicely Winter’s group organ classes from 2018 to early 2020.
He is an avid online researcher and continues to discover surprising information about organs and ecclesiastical history. He participates in IOHIO concerts and helps with organ conservation and maintenance. In 2019 he co-founded the Orquesta Filarmónica de Oaxaca (ORFIOAX) and served as its Executive/Artistic Director. In 2020 he took a course in Orchestral Conducting with Eduardo Juárez in Xalapa, Veracruz. Isaí is invited regularly by priests and local authorities throughout the State to accompany the mass and private celebrations with the organ or other keyboard instruments, as well as to direct choral and orchestral ensembles.
He currently teaches sacred music at the Seminario Pontificio de la Santa Cruz, as well as to the nuns in the Dominican and Clarista convents and in the parish of San Pablo Huitzo. He was awarded a PECDA (Program for the Promotion of Artistic Creation and Development) grant in 2025, to present concerts on Oaxaca organs and academic presentations. Isaí created and maintains the social media accounts for the IOHIO–Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube—which together account for more than 10,000 followers.
He has presented piano and organ recitals in Oaxaca and plays the mass in Tlacolula whenever he is in town. Jesús and a colleague currently play the two monumental organs in the Mexico City Cathedral for the mass each Sunday often followed by works for two organs, as well as for special liturgical celebrations.
Jesús González Velasco (Tlacolula, Oaxaca 1999). As a result of the restoration of the historic pipe organ in his community (2014), he began taking organ lessons in the Instituto de Órganos Históricos de Oaxaca. From 2016 - 2021 with the support of the IOHIO he studied piano, theory, and harmony with Pierre Arnaud Le-Guerinel and taught solfege and piano to children. Since 2021 he has been studying a B.M. (Licenciatura) in Piano with Fernando García Torres in the Escuela Superior de Música (Mexico City) and will finish in 2025. He has continued his organ studies in the same institution with Víctor Contreras and Jesús López Moreno and will complete another B.M. degree in Organ and Early Music in 2027. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the Universidad Nacionalista México in Oaxaca.
In September, 2023, Jesús participated in the XXII Academia Internacional de Órgano in Granada, Spain, directed by Juan María Pedrero. He had a master class with organist Pieter Dirksen and was invited to be the registrant for Luca Scandali’s concert during the festival. In 2024 he was a finalist in the Sixth National Piano Competition in Guadalajara and won Third Place in the Fourth Latin American Piano Competition, Fundación Cultural GIOIA, in Nariño, Colombia.
Board of Advisors
Federico Acitores
William O. Autry
Michael Barone
Robert Bates
Guy Bovet
Ma. de la Luz Enríquez
Elisa Freixo
Roberto Fresco
David Furniss
Cristina García Banegas
Halbert Gober
Gerhard Grenzing
Laurence Libin
Joaquín Lois
Kimberly Marshall
Claudio Sánchez Islas
Bruce Shull
Susan Tattershall
Montserrat Torrent
In Memorium †
Roberto Mayer
Alfonso Vega Nuñez
Jacques van Oortmerssen
Barbara Owen
Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini
Liuwe Tamminga
Ignacio Toscano
Víctor Urbán