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). She recently rewrote and updated the IOHIO’s extensive new website.

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. This is the only chapter in Mexico which includes an advocate for the historic organs.

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, Social Media Coordinator (Oaxaca, 1996), studied in the CEDART high school (“Centro de Educación Artística Miguel Cabrera”) and demonstrated interest in the Oaxaca organs as a young teenager, leading to piano and organ lessons with Joel Vásquez. He was invited to participate in the 2015 SOLUNA Festival of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. In 2016-2017 Isaí studied with the Dominican friars of the Santiago Province in Mexico (Guanajuato). In 2018 he participated in master classes with Andrés Cea Galán on the organs of the Mexico City Cathedral. He studied briefly with James Wyly (harpsichord) and Pierre-Arnaud Le Guérinel (piano, solfege, harmony) and later participated in Cicely Winter’s group organ classes in the Jalatlaco and Soledad churches. 

Isaí is closely involved with all musical activities in the Basilica de la Soledad, and accompanies the mass and special religious celebrations in churches throughout the State. 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 serves as its Executive Director. In 2020 he took a course in Orchestral Conducting with Eduardo Juárez in Xalapa, Veracruz. Isaí created and manages the IOHIO’s social networks: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which together account for more than 8600 followers.

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 his in 2025. He has continued his organ studies in the same institution with Víctor Contreras 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. Jesús has presented organ recitals in Tlacolula and plays the mass there whenever he is in Oaxaca.   

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