BIOGRAPHY
John De La Paz is currently a college assistant professor at New Mexico State University and the Dona Ana Community College. He has a private music studio located in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as well as online via Skype. As a co-founding member of Duo Artesanal, he has performed and presented workshops and masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Japan. John has held faculty appointments at the Las Vegas Music Festival (2007) and at the College of Southern Nevada (clarinet, theory, and music history). He has performed as a soloist and ensemble member at the Guatemala Clarifest, International Clarinet Association conferences, and the University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposiums.
Mr. De La Paz has also performed in the world premieres of several works of internationally recognized composers, including Donald Grantham, James Grant, Daniel Asia, Paul Chihara, and David Maslanka. Additional ensemble performances include ACE (Arizona Contemporary Ensemble), Nextet (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez (Juarez Symphony), and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. De La Paz has created ancillary materials for James Shearer’s Music 101: A Guide to Active Listening for a Generation Online & Jazz Basics and A Brief Overview with Historical Documents and Listening Guides. In addition, he has developed Music Appreciation courses to be fully integrated as online courses for New Mexico State University and The University of Arizona.
Mr. De La Paz has studied with David Etheridge (University of Oklahoma), Gregory Smith (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Bradford Behn (Tulsa Philharmonic), József Balogh (Budapest Radio Symphony), Dr. David Ross (El Paso Symphony Orchestra), John Pleasant (University of Texas, El Paso), LaRoy Borchert (New Mexico State University), and Jerry Kirkbride (Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona).
He is a D’Addario Woodwinds program clinician and exclusively performs on D’Addario reeds. John De La Paz can be heard on the Klavier and Naxos Music labels performing with The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Wind Ensemble.