Doctora Xingona Diana Alvarez
Instructor
Doctora Xingona Diana Alvarez’s ancestors bloom in their voice as exaltations of queer love and liberation. An expansive multidisciplinary artist, Doctora Xingona’s transcendent music and immersive multimedia performances create a gripping atmosphere for healing and community.
Doctora Xingona is the creator of Quiero Volver: A Xingonx Ritual Opera, a multimedia performance altar for queer, trans, and gender expansive BIPOC artists to convene and manifest futures. Quiero Volver was awarded the Public Art for Spatial Justice Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts as well as multiple Massachusetts Cultural Council grants. The performance was described by the press as “acoustically stunning,” and audience members have said that they were “inspired to take action, artistic and political.”
Under the mentorship of the late multi-instrumentalist, performer, and recording studio founder Linda Flores, Diana performed and recorded music professionally from the age of fourteen. Diana’s early years in Corpus Christi, Texas were spent singing pop, Latin jazz, mariachi, country, jazz, and rock as part of Flores’ versatile multi-genre band. Alvarez went on to study voice, music, and writing as an undergraduate student, and went on to earn an MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College on a mission to refine their songwriting and multimedia arts practice. Diana also earned her Ph.D. in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she was mentored by groundbreaking composer Pauline Oliveros. During their doctoral studies, Alvarez studied composition, songwriting, guitar, and voice alongside her research of QTBIPOC artist gatherings and multimedia performance. During their doctoral studies, Diana composed music and poetry for their multimedia show, Quiero Volver: A Xingonx Ritual Opera. As a post-doctorate teaching fellow, Alvarez taught music and designed the first-ever songwriting curriculum to be taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Alvarez has since been a faculty member at Bard Microcollege Holyoke, Holyoke Community College, and Greenfield Community College, where they have taught courses in songwriting, multimedia performance, and activist art. Currently, Diana teaches voice, guitar, and songwriting at ModernTone Studios and privately in the Bay Area.
In April 2023, Doctora Xingona was an invited artist-in-residence at the University of Skövde, Sweden, where they spent time collaborating with their partner Genesis Fermin and queer youth at Kulturlabbet, the local art and culture house. Doctora Xingona is an invited performer, guest lecturer, workshop facilitator, and keynote speaker at venues and schools across the US and worldwide, including Festival Internaciónal Cervantino, MX, Philadelphia Folk Festival, PA, Banff Centre for the Arts, Folk Alliance International, and many more.
Doctora Xingona’s debut album Ser Artista was produced by Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Seth Glier, and features songs from Quiero Volver: A Xingonx Ritual Opera.
To learn more, visit: www.diana-alvarez.com / @brujajuana