Yulissa Maqueos
Yulissa Maqueos is a talented musician and band director who draws inspiration from her Oaxacan roots. Music played a crucial role in Yulissa’s life since her birth in San Andrés Solaga, Oaxaca, Mexico. Yulissa’s father worked as a farmworker as a means to sustain his family, but his true calling was to be a musician and music instructor, which he actualized in the town’s municipal band. Unbeknownst to them, this work would plant the seed for Yulissa’s future. Yulissa, a DACA student, graduated with a Bachelor of Music from CSULA, currently and proudly functions today as Band director at Maqueos Music, a role not often filled by women. Maqueos is excited to help expand her father’s academy and bring wider visibility to the Oaxacan community. She prefers not to limit her dreams and welcomes the opportunities that come her way.
In the Community
Yulissa Maqueos provided a series of workshops with New Brunswick Public Schools at the Paul Robeson Community School for the Arts, where she introduced middle school band students to music from the repertoire of the Oaxacan Banda groups that are a foundational part of her personal and professional life. New Brunswick is home to a large Oaxacan community, and Ms. Maqueos’s visit helped connect the community here to other Oaxacan diaspora communities across the country and provided an opportunity to support the inclusion of music and arts related to the cultural heritage of our local community groups in the schools.
At Rutgers
Maqueos also visited with music education students at Rutgers to discuss how to introduce repertoire beyond the classical genres into children’s educational experiences.
