Violinist Gloria Velasco has been playing with The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra since it was founded in 1984.

She is a retired Albuquerque Public School orchestra teacher and still works for APS as a mentor for first-year music teachers. Gloria also runs music clinics, judges local orchestra programs and festivals, and teaches at Hummingbird Music Camp in Jemez Springs. She has conducted The Albuquerque Youth Symphony’s Preparatory String Orchestra has been since its inception.

During the summer, Gloria has taught at the Suzuki Instituto Internacionál in Bogotá, Colombia and Instituto Juvenil in Aquascalientes, Mexico. Her professional playing began with the Oregon Symphony, and includes the El Paso Symphony, the San Juan Symphony, the Opera Southwest, and The New Mexico Symphony.

Gloria received her Bachelor of Music in Performance from Marylhurst College in Oregon. She continued with graduate study in violin and viola performance at Eastern New Mexico University, and also received both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Education at the University of New Mexico. She has received the New Mexico Outstanding Orchestra teacher award from the American String Teachers’ Association and the New Mexico Music Teacher Emeritus Award from the New Mexico Music Educators’ Association.

Gloria is the mother of two daughters, both of whom were active members of the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program, and is a grandmother of six.