The Festival del Pitic is one of the biggest cultural festivals celebrated in Sonora, Mexico, celebrating the foundation of Sonora’s capital, Hermosillo, and in 2017, Ignacio Mondaca made his first appearance in the festival, playing a program that included major composers in the guitar repertoire such as J.S. Bach, Joaquin Rodrigo, Fernando Sor, and Agustin Barrios. This has been Mr. Mondaca’s biggest concert yet, but he has also participated four times consecutively in the Festival Kino, giving numerous concerts in the mission of Tumacacori (AZ), Magdalena (Sonora), Caborca (Sonora), and Pitiquito (Sonora) where he also fomented the importance of music, arts, and culture in schools.
Ignacio has won the Annual David & Leonard Schaeffer Memorial guitar competition at the University of Arizona three times consecutively. On December 2015 he was awarded a brand new concert classical guitar at the William Wolfe Award Recital at the University of Arizona. He won a scholarship to go to Domaine Forget in Canada, where he also performed at the Musee D’Art Contemporain, at De Baie-Saint Paul, and took private classes with maestros such as Alvaro Pierri and Lorenzo Michelli.
All these consecutive life opportunities have been result of his passion for music; after moving and finishing high school in the U.S. in 2014, Mr. Mondaca was awarded a full-tuition Fine Arts Tuition Award by the University of Arizona, where he continued his studies under the instruction of Professor Tom Patterson. He has played for guitarists such as David Russell, Odair and Sergio Assad, and Judicael Perroy.
Mr. Mondaca started playing the guitar at the age of 12, in Hermosillo, where he grew up. After three years of semi-regular constant practice, Ignacio was already playing lead in a classical/traditional guitar ensemble named Staccato, conducted by his first classical guitar teacher Jesus Cota. He recorded lead guitar in the album, A toda Musica! by Staccato. Upon graduating he plans to further his music studies and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Arizona.