Ricardo Paz

Born in Mexico City, Dr. Ricardo Paz has performed throughout Mexico and the United States, including Weber State University, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah State University and Springville Museum of Art in Utah among others. Dr. Paz has appeared on National Public Radio in the United States. He has also been an adjudicator for the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America symposiums in both Phoenix and Las Vegas in the college categories.

In addition to his performing career, Dr. Paz was the guitar program Director at Phoenix Elementary School District #1 and founder of the Herrera Panther Guitar Ensemble. In 2015, He developed and hosted the first Phoenix District Guitar Festival where students ranging from elementary school to graduate school performed for the community. Dr. Paz started studying guitar at a young age in his native Mexico with Luis Robert and the Argentinian concert guitarist Manuel López Ramos. Dr. Paz studied at the National School of Music of the National Autonomous University of Mexico where he obtained a Bachelor of Music Degree under the guidance of Juan Carlos Laguna. He holds a M.M. and D.M.A. in Guitar Performance from Arizona State University where he studied with the internationally acclaimed guitar professor Frank Koonce.

Dr. Paz has been the recipient of numerous international awards such as the Special Talent Award, Louis Lincoln Kerr Music Endowment, Richard & Babette Burns Scholarship and K. Herberger Scholarship from Arizona State University.

He also won the prestigious Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts scholarship for postgraduate studies abroad on two occasions. In 2018, Dr. Paz founded the Classical Guitar Program in Aspen Community School and Capital HS in Santa Fe Public Schools. These guitar programs provide a genuine middle and high school quality guitar experience training with the skills necessary to take guitar study to a college level.

Dr. Paz will study a Ph.D. in the Musicology Department at University of California, Riverside in the Fall 2023.