About this Artist

Venezuelan violinist, MARIESTHER ALVAREZ is founder and co-director of Boston String Academy, a non-profit organization inspired by El Sistema that believes in social change through musical excellence. Mariesther holds graduate degrees from The Boston Conservatory. She is faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College, and collaborates regularly with El Sistema in Venezuela, as well as other Sistema-inspired programs in the U.S. and abroad.

Mariesther’s violin and pedagogy mentors have included Francisco Díaz, José Francisco Del Castillo, Sophie Vilker, Mela Tenenbaum, Rictor Noren, Mimi Zweig, and Geza Szilvay. She has also collaborated with artists such as Pamela Frank, Joseph Silverstein, Midori Goto, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Gustavo Dudamel, and Sir Simon Rattle. In the Spring of 2016, she was chosen among the 100 most influential people for the Hispanic community in Massachusetts. Recently, she was nominated with Boston String Academy for the Mass Cultural Council’s 2019 Commonwealth Awards.