Martin Espino is a

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

musician and composer of indigenous

Yaqui The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are an Indigenous people of Mexico and Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe, who speak the Yaqui language, a Uto-Aztecan language. Their primary homelands are in Río Yaqui valley in the no ...

and Tepehuano ancestry from

Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States census, 2010 census figure. Whittier ...

. He is best known for performing authentic prehispanic music with his band MEXIKA. Espino spent over twenty five years researching prehispanic musical instruments and performed with many indigenous musicians from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. Espino's musical inspiration comes directly from traditional Native American/Mexican music as well as ambient improvisations. As the composer and artistic director of a group called '' Nahualli Ensemble'', and co-leader of QUETAL, Espino has received many awards from various groups including the

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

. Espino continues to lecture and concertize throughout America. In October 2008, his instruments were used by the Bakersfield Symphony to replicate a performance of Silvestre Revueltas SENSEMAYA, and Carlos Chavez SINFONIA INDIA, compositions which were specifically written for indigenous instruments of Mexico, and are usually performed on "substitute instruments". Espino's musical partner Christopher Garcia was asked to help perform the compositions with the symphony. Both Espino and Garcia are classically trained musicians as well. Other than his solo works, Espino has also composed for theater, video and television commercials. Espino was also a contributing artist for the live-action film adaption of '' El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie''. El Muerto (film)#Music

References

External links

Official siteOfficial MySpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espino, Martin Year of birth missing (living people) American folk musicians Hispanic and Latino American musicians Living people American musicians of Mexican descent