Texas’ Dallas Symphony Announces Inaugural Diversity Fellows

The orchestra has welcomed three participants to the first class of its new Diversity Fellowship Program

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) inaugural Diversity Fellowship Program provides performance, education, and mentorship opportunities for up to three orchestral musicians from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.

To begin the program in DSO’s 2023/24 season, the Fellows are cellist Keeon Guzman, violist Pedro Mendez, and bassoonist Jaquain Sloan.

To participate in a comprehensive curriculum program, including mock auditions, masterclasses, private lessons, teaching, and chamber music, the three fellows will also be paid for a total of 25 weeks of orchestral performance.

Additionally, each Fellow will receive guidance from a personal mentor, who will support their progress in audition preparation and career training.

A graduate of the Mozarteum University Salzburg and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Guzman’s teachers have included Enrico Bronzi, Eric Kim, and Brandon Vamos. He has also studied at the Pacific Music Festival, Music Master Course Japan Yokohama, Domaine Forget Music Festival, and the National Repertory Orchestra.

A Venezuelan violist and violinist, Pedro Mendez is a graduate of the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory Academia Latinoamericana de Violín and the Roosevelt University. In 2022, he was appointed assistant principal viola of the Illinois Philharmonic and co-principal viola of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He is also a Project Inclusion Viola Fellow at the Chicago Sinfonietta and violist of the Soto String Quartet.

A Peabody Conservatory and University of Southern California graduate, Jaquain Sloan has received recognition from the Sphinx Organization, the Aspen and Brevard Music Festivals, and recently performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as an African-American Fellow. As a singer, he has worked with Björk, Phil Collins, Sigur Rós, Kronos Quartet, plus GRAMMY-nominated choral ensemble Tonality, and The L.A Choral Lab.

“We are thrilled to welcome these talented musicians as the first class of Fellows,” said DSO’s president and CEO, Kim Noltemy. “We look forward to their fellowship with the DSO and assisting them as they launch their orchestral careers.”

Under the leadership of its music director Fabio Luisi, the DSO presents over 150 orchestra concerts at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The orchestra annually reaches over 243,000 adults and children through concerts and outreach programs.

The DSO also offers over 200 outdoor chamber concerts annually in neighborhoods throughout Dallas and provides online music lessons to more than 700 students as part of its Young Strings and Young Musicians programs.