Ministers & Staff
Dr. Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez -
Director of Music,
Master Pianist and Organist
Dr. Hernandez-Valdez is a highly acclaimed solo and chamber pianist, choral and orchestral conductor, and composer. He is Director of Music & Piano and Organ Master at Westmoreland Congregational UCC in Bethesda, Maryland where he leads and oversees a dynamic and greatly respected music program. In coordination with the Music and Arts committee at Westmoreland he leads the Music and Arts at Westmoreland Benefit Series, which presents concerts and art exhibits of the highest quality with the purpose of promoting culture and collecting funds for a diverse array of charitable organizations. He is also the Associate Conductor and Pianist of internationally acclaimed Choral Arts Society of Washington. Through his association with the Choral Arts Society of Washington he regularly works with some of the greatest conductors, choruses, and orchestras in the world.
Dr. Hernandez-Valdez has received numerous awards such as the Solidaridad Endowed Presidential Scholarship, the E.D. Farmer Endowed International Fellowship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Solo, Vocal Accompanying, and Orchestral Piano Fellowships, among others. He has appeared as pianist, organist, and harpsichordist under the baton of internationally acclaimed conductors David Zinman, Sir Neville Mariner, John Williams, Robert Spano, James Conlon, Julius Rudel, James DePriest, Michael Stern, Murray Sidlin, James Ross, Robert Shafer, J. Reilly Lewis, and Norman Scribner.
Dr. Hernandez-Valdez was awarded first prizes in the Virginia Music Teachers Association Piano Competition and the Sidney M. Wright Collaborative Artists Competition, among others. He studied piano with Gregory Allen, Rita Sloan, Elizabeth Temple, Richard Tetley-Kardos, Anton Nel, Timothy Lovelace, Gabriel Chodos, and Frank Weinstock. His conducting teachers were James Ross, Robert Shafer, Kevin Noe, and Glenn Richter. His main composition teacher was the highly acclaimed Mexican composer Domingo Lobato.
Dr. Hernandez-Valdez has performed music of Mexican composers at the Aspen Music Festival, the Garth Newel Music Center, and the Salida Concert Series. His success in promoting Latin American music has led to distinctions such as being named in multiple occasions International Fellow by the Tereza Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies of the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Hernandez-Valdez has performed and collaborated in the production of performances in some of the most important halls in Mexico and the United States such as the Concert Hall and the Terrace and Eisenhower Theatres at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall in New York City, Harris Hall and Benedict Music Tent at the Aspen Music Festival, the National Cathedral of Washington, and in Mexico at the Teatro Degollado, Instituto Cultural Cabañas (UNESCO Patrimony of Humanity), Ex-convento del Carmen, and the Historic Paraninfo of the University of Guadalajara.
Page last updated 24 April 2012.