Bio
Citlali Gómez Escobar is a Mexican pianist, composer and artistic researcher, based in Vienna. She holds a Master Degree in Social Design from Die Angewandte, University of Apply Arts Vienna, Austria and a Bachelor Degree in Piano Performance from Mexico’s Faculty of Music and further education courses on Art Philosophy.
She has attended classes of chamber music with the duo Assad, and piano with Master Elías Morales Cariño, and taken part in seminars such as “The Vocal Repertoire of Pianists” given by Master Brian Moll, and “Extended Piano Techniques of the 20th and 21st Century” given by Dr. Mauricio Ramos Viterbo and “Historic Musical Interpretation” given by Master Isabel Shau and “The principles of somatic education for musicians, and the prevention of injuries related to playing their instruments” given by Cristina Castro, and she has also attended classes of Spanish music with Master Miguel Figueroa.
Citlali’s artistic process has been deeply influenced by her cultural heritage, which rests on the Zapotec indigenous community located in the Southern part of Mexico. It is dedicated not only to promoting reflective exploration of both social environment and diversity that surround us through music, but also to unveiling their influence on people’s development and ways of living. Her work is the result of her artistic research, engaging with the importance of the music for the reinforcement of identity and culture, as well as a transmitter of knowledge of the societies that produce it.
As a pianist, Citlali performs as a soloist with orchestra, recitalist, chamber musician, and vocal accompanist. Her most prominent piano performances include: “Concert Musicians of Bellas Artes” and “The International Guitar Festival of Morelia” (Mexico); music lecture and performance of the music of Beethoven: “Thinking through his Piano Sonatas” at the Bergen Offentigle Bibliotek (Norway); an educational concert of the music of Schumann: “Papillons: Music as Literature” at the Bergen Offentigle Bibliotek (Norway); performance at the opening of the Urbanized Festival 2019 at Belvedere 21 (Austria); solo recitals at Concert Hall Silvestre Revueltas of the National Institute of Fine Arts (Mexico), as well as in concert halls in Brazil and the United States.
In 2006, she was awarded the “Support for Artistic and Cultural Projects” from the Mexican Institute of Youth for her project “Canni runda: diffusion of Latin American music from folklore to concert,” whose aim was to promote Latin American composers’ music from the XIX and XX centuries. Also, in 2019 she was granted the “Auslandsstipendium for scientific work in other countries” from Die Angewandte for her project “Endangered Indigenous Songs”. It focuses on the preservation, revitalization and dissemination of Indigenous Songs from Kichwa and Wayuu communities from Ecuador and Colombia which are in danger of extinction.
Citlali’s current project encompasses the arrangement for solo piano and recording of the Opera Fidelio for the cultural association “Sonnenlicht Tanztheater”. This new Opera version pretends to set the story in a contemporary time and placed it in Tijuana, the northern border of Mexico with the United States, where the characters of the play unfold in a violent city and are affected by the drug war.
Since 2019 Citlali, together with Mexican soprano Liliana Arreola, form the piano vocal duo Arreola-Gómez, whose repertoire specializes in their own versions of Latin American music, including traditional music.