Wanda Vásquez García is a general music educator, choir director, children’s book author, advocate, and clinician. A native of the Dominican Republic currently living in Colorado, she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, the first University on the American Continent, and a Master’s Degree in Music Education with an emphasis on choral music from the University of Northern Colorado. Wanda is also a Chorister Guild Institute Alumn.
Currently, she is the general music teacher at the Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer in Lafayette, Colorado, an assistant instructor for the Colorado Children’s Chorale, and a Co-Coordinator Choral Database for the Institute for Composer Diversity.
As a K-5 music educator, she believes music is a very effective way to create connections and build bridges promoting the uniqueness of each individual in the classroom. As an author, she embraces the power of a story in order to connect with one’s own roots and the diversity around us. She is passionate about the importance of increasing diversity and representation in music education from a culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining lens. Music education should engage the learners in ways that are fun, meaningful, and inclusive in order to embrace each other with respect, tolerance, justice, and a sense of belonging.
The pursuit of creating a Diverse, Inclusive, Anti-bias, and Anti-racist music classroom for her students is what brings her to this work as a teacher leader.
“Growing up, I didn’t feel represented in the music I studied, sang, and played while a student at the Conservatory in the Dominican Republic. It is this desire to provide a different opportunity for my students that brought me to the music education field.”
Wanda has presented clinics and reading sessions promoting multicultural music, Dominican folk music, culturally responsive teaching, and music technology in the elementary classroom at Colorado ACDA, CMEA, NAfME Easter Division, FABSS, and Little Kids Rock Modern Band Summit.