Luis Gabriel Mesa Martínez

Colombian musicologist and pianist. Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, the first university to gain institutional accreditation from the Ministry of Education in Colombia, and one of the oldest in Latin America (founded in 1623). He has directed the Master of Music program at that institution, since 2015.

Dr. Mesa Martínez earned his PhD in Musicology at the University of Granada (Spain), after completing a Bachelor of Arts in Music at Macalester College (Minnesota, USA). He also pursued studies in historical musicology at the University of Paris IV – Sorbonne (France), thanks to the Alexander International Scholarship and the Center for University Programs Abroad. Earlier degrees included an International Baccalaureate from the Red Cross Nordic United World College (Norway). In 2020, he earned an international research grant from the Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom (Global Challenges Research Fund), in collaboration with Dr. Fiorella Montero-Díaz (Keele University). Their project, named Sounding a Queer Rebellion: LGBTI Musical Resistances in Latin America, made it possible to organize two international encounters in Lima (Peru) and Bogota (Colombia), where they both collaborated with a significant number of LGBTI artists. A documentary film was therefore produced and launched in May (2023), including testimonies and findings from both international events.  

His academic production analyses local and global identities through music, specifically in the Andean region of Nariño - Colombia (near the border with Ecuador). One of his most recent papers revealed new findings on the historical connections between Colombian and Costa Rican music, with a particular focus on Maruja Hinestrosa —a female composer from Southern Colombia. This article, together with a research book and a documentary on the music of Hinestrosa, has earned Dr. Mesa Martinez international recognition in the field of Latin American musicology, including regular participation in academic symposia and lectures around the key concepts of his academic approach: gender and transnationalism.

His publications include the following books: Towards a Reconstruction of ‘Professional Musicianship’ in Colombia (Granada, 2014), Maruja Hinestrosa: Nariño Identity through her Piano (Pasto, 2014) and Luis Enrique Nieto: Music from Nariño in the ‘Clavel Rojo’ Era (Pasto, 2015). He has also published six phonographic albums, some of which resulted from his musicological research and included his own chamber arrangements for Colombian and European instrumentation. The most recent recordings correspond to Indigenismo (2018) and Muysca (2023), where he collaborated with soprano singer Carolina Plata, as part of their research regarding Latin American art song in indigenous languages.