The teachers of La Blanca

Founder · Piano & composition

Blanca Fuentes Valencia

Blanca Fuentes Valencia is a Yucatecan pianist, composer, cultural manager and music educator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Musical Arts with a specialty in Piano from the University of the Arts of Yucatán and is currently pursuing graduate studies in Musical Arts with a specialty in Creation. Her career brings together performance, composition, teaching and the creation of cultural projects.

As a pianist she has developed a particular focus on vocal and choral accompaniment, performing in national and international settings. As a composer, her music has been performed by various orchestras and ensembles across Mexico and presented at contemporary-music festivals and gatherings. She is the founder and director of the International Festival of Contemporary Women Musicians (Mujeres Músicas Contemporáneas), created in 2021 to promote and give visibility to the work of women in music.

She is the founder of Academia La Blanca, an educational project that unites her artistic and teaching experience to foster a musical training built on the integral development of every student. At the academy she teaches piano, composition, harmony, counterpoint and music analysis.

Teaches: Piano · Composition · Harmony · Counterpoint · Music analysis

Guitar · Songwriting

Karen Rosales Coral

Originally from Dzidzantún, Yucatán, Karen Rosales Coral is a singer-songwriter, composer and guitarist. Her training spans popular guitar, trova and vocal technique, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in Music with a specialty in Classical Guitar from the University of the Arts of Yucatán.

Her career combines the creation of original music with the performance and promotion of Yucatecan musical heritage. She is a guitarist with the Orquesta Típica Yukalpetén — with whom she has also appeared as a guest solo singer — and a founding member of Piel de Barro, a jarana orchestra made up of women. In 2025 she was a PECDA Yucatán grantee, and in 2026 she released her first EP, Sin Retorno.

At Academia La Blanca she teaches guitar and the Songwriting (Cantautores) course, guiding her students both in instrumental development and in writing songs of their own.

Teaches: Guitar · Songwriting

Children’s Choir

Gaspar Gamboa Sosa

Gaspar Gamboa Sosa is an arts teacher and choral director whose career has been especially devoted to children’s musical training. He has studied operatic singing and was part of the Opera Workshop of the then Escuela de Música Coral, as well as performing as a member and soloist in vocal ensembles.

His training includes courses and workshops in children’s choirs and choral-conducting techniques with national and international specialists. He has directed the Niños Cantores de Yucatán within the Secretaría de Cultura’s Alas y Raíces program, performing at various venues across Mexico. In 2016 he travelled with a delegation of the Niños Cantores de Yucatán to Berlin, Germany, where the group performed in several spaces and at the Embassy of Mexico, as part of activities attended by the then president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, and German chancellor Angela Merkel. He has also performed with the Niños Cantores at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

At Academia La Blanca he leads the Children’s Choir (Coro Infantil), nurturing children’s artistic sensibility and musical training through singing together.

Teaches: Children’s Choir

Piano

Melanie López Herrera

Melanie López Herrera is a piano teacher with more than ten years of experience teaching children, teens and adults. Her musical training includes studies in Musical Arts at the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in Cultural and Arts Management from the Centro Universitario Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

Since 2012 she has worked as a private piano teacher, where she has also prepared candidates for the admission exams of the University of the Arts of Yucatán’s preparatory program.

Since 2008 she has taken part as a speaker, soloist, accompanying pianist and chamber-music ensemble member in a range of venues and projects, among them Variedades Porteñas in Progreso, Nuevos valores en la música de concierto by ESAY-PROHISPEN, the Festival Otoño Cultural, the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Belize, Crecer cantando, jueves corales, SEDECULTA’s Cultura en línea and the Festival Mujeres Músicas Contemporáneas. In 2025 she was a grantee of the PECDA Yucatán 2024 call with the project Ellas y Ellos, música latinoamericana.

At Academia La Blanca she teaches piano to children, teens and adults, in Spanish and English.

Teaches: Piano

Voice

Gabriela Aldana Campos

Gabriela Aldana Campos is a lyric singer and voice teacher from Mérida, Yucatán. She began her vocal training with teacher Noemí Bolio de Sosa and later studied sight-singing, ear training and voice. In 2009 she entered the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán in the lyric-singing specialty with professor Lázaro González Delgado.

Throughout her career she has performed as a soloist and choral singer on a range of stages and projects, with a repertoire spanning the Baroque to Mexican and Latin American music. Her training has been enriched by classes and courses with various specialists in voice, conducting and repertoire, in both Mexico and Cuba.

Since 2008 she has taken part as a soloist and in ensembles across various forums and cultural projects. In 2025 she developed the recital Ellas y Ellos, música latinoamericana, as a PECDA Yucatán 2024 grantee project. Alongside her artistic work, she has taught voice since 2018.

At Academia La Blanca she teaches voice.

Teaches: Voice

Saxophone

Inés Villamil Peralta

Inés Villamil Peralta is a Yucatecan saxophonist and choral singer whose career spans academic music, popular music and interdisciplinary projects. Her training includes a High-School Diploma in Arts and Humanities with a specialty in Music and technical studies in Popular Music and Alto Saxophone at the Escuela Juan Acereto, along with further training in saxophone, jazz, music history and sight-singing.

Since 2016 she has been a member of the Yucatán Symphonic Band “Luis Luna Guarneros,” and since 2020 of the UADY University Típica Orchestra, now merged as the Sinfonieta Académica de Mérida. Her experience also includes choral projects, appearances as a solo saxophonist and collaborations with various musical groups.

As a teacher she has experience giving private lessons in saxophone, voice and sight-singing, as well as working in music academies. At Academia La Blanca she teaches saxophone.

Teaches: Saxophone

Latin American Music · Ukulele

David Figueroa Esquivel

David Figueroa Esquivel is a multi-instrumentalist and cultural manager from Chicxulub Puerto, Yucatán. His training began with popular guitar and Mexican and Latin American music. He later studied jazz guitar at the Center for Jazz Studies of the Universidad Veracruzana, JAZZUV, and was musically active in Veracruz, Puebla and Mexico City.

His musical practice spans a wide range of string, wind and percussion instruments especially tied to Latin American musical traditions. He is a founding member of Son del Sur, Ensamble Latinoamericano, and has taken part in various Mexican popular-music and jazz projects.

His teaching experience includes leading workshops in Latin American Music and Popular Guitar in spaces of the Secretaría de Cultura of the State of Yucatán, working with teens, adults and older adults.

At Academia La Blanca he teaches Latin American Music, Ukulele and Band Ensemble.

Teaches: Latin American Music · Ukulele · Band Ensemble

Violin

Montserrat Rodríguez Gómez

Montserrat Rodríguez Gómez is a violinist and educator with professional training in music and education. She is a graduate of the bachelor’s degree in Musical Arts from the University of the Arts of Yucatán and of the bachelor’s degree in Education from the Autonomous University of Yucatán.

Since 2019 she has worked as a private violin teacher with children, teens and adults. Her work includes designing study plans and providing technical and theoretical guidance in areas such as music reading and writing, posture, tuning and music history.

Her complementary training includes experiences such as the Children’s and Youth Symphony Orchestra of Mexico and the International Music Festival Ópera Maya, as well as studies related to education, mediation and community cultural development.

At Academia La Blanca she teaches violin.

Teaches: Violin