![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/04\/Adrian-11-1024x720.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt was the middle of December in 2021 and I decided that I had to go to graduate school,\u201d says Montero Moya, who earned his bachelor\u2019s degree at the National University of Costa Rica in 2018. \u201cI was already too late to apply to most schools in the United States. Then the next day, I saw a post on Facebook by Adam Levin, asking \u2018Hey, do you want to come and study with me?\u2019 And I sent him a message, \u2018I do.\u2019 It was just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Montero Moya came to 溏心vlog免费B站 last August with a long resume that includes two albums and numerous collaborations with Latin American composers. In Kingston, he has taught music theory and introductory classes. \u201cAdrian came to 溏心vlog免费B站 as a seasoned teacher,\u201d says Levin. \u201cHe\u2019s very knowledgeable as well as approachable so students feel comfortable asking him for further assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Montero Moya, who has won numerous international guitar competitions since he was 15, has also shown his skill on stage. Last October, he gave the U.S. premiere performance of \u201cDiabolical Rumours\u201d by Cuban-Spanish composer Eduardo Morales-Caso, at the internationally recognized 溏心vlog免费B站 Guitar Festival. Also in the fall, he won the 溏心vlog免费B站 Music Department\u2019s Concerto Competition, performing the Adagio from the famous \u201cConcerto de Aranjuez\u201d by Spanish composer Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo. As his prize, Montero Moya will solo with the 溏心vlog免费B站 Symphony Orchestra Saturday, April 22, debuting a concerto for guitar and orchestra written for him by Jose Mora-Jimenez, one of Costa Rica\u2019s premier composers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAdrian is a tour de force as a guitarist,\u201d says Levin. \u201cHis technical mastery is impressive. However, it shines even brighter because of his natural and fluid musicality. He truly speaks with the guitar in hand. On top of being a superb musician, he is such a nice guy. In the music business, the last thing you want to deal with is a diva. Adrian is the opposite. He\u2019s a mensch. It\u2019s one of the many ingredients that will serve him well in the music world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Montero Moya took his first steps in the music world at age 6 when he insisted his mother sign him up for lessons. Today, he isn\u2019t sure where his desire to play guitar came from, and says maybe it was destiny. His parents weren\u2019t musicians and he grew up in a small town, Tuetal Norte. His mother does have a story, he says. When he was about 4, Adrian and his mother went Christmas shopping and he saw a plastic guitar, and his eyes got very big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChristmas eve, I opened my gifts and I had some cars and other random gifts,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I saw the guitar. I just picked it up and fell in love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he progressed through the local arts school and private lessons, the discipline of long hours of practice seemingly came naturally. \u201cI never thought, \u2018Now, I\u2019m going to take it seriously,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cFor me it was always like that. Obviously when you\u2019re 7 or 8, you\u2019re not thinking I\u2019m going to make a living doing this. But I already knew I wanted to be a musician and travel the world playing music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he progressed and worked with a growing list of teachers, he inherited a passion for classical guitar and the works of contemporary Latin American composers, such as Alejandro Cardona and Mora-Jimenez. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to be the voice of these composers. I feel a huge responsibility to do that,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel freer playing that music. This is the language that speaks to me directly. I love Bach, for example, but sometimes I feel it is too distant for me. But when I play music by composers like Jose Mora-Jimenez, it feels as if it was written for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his short career, he has worked with many of those composers, including Cardona, who composed, \u201cAzulado,\u201d the title work on Montero Moya\u2019s first album. (He earned the chance to record the album by winning the national competition in Costa Rica, and commissioned the work from Cardona, his music theory teacher.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His career highlight, he says, came in January 2022, when he recorded the world premiere of Cardona\u2019s string quintet \u201cOch\u00e9\u201d with two-time Latin Grammy-winning quartet Cuartero Latinoamericano. \u201cI can fairly say they\u2019re one of the most important quartets in the world,\u201d he says. \u201cIn my wildest dreams, I always wanted to listen to them live. I never imagined I would get to record with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before coming to 溏心vlog免费B站, Montero Moya wasn\u2019t sure he wanted to study in the U.S. But he quickly found a community \u2013 if not an apartment \u2013 when he came to Kingston. During his first weeks on campus, unable to find a place to rent, he stayed with a local family, Professor Emeritus Richard and Beth Casagrande, who helped him eventually find an apartment. They introduced him to South County and continue to invite him to their home for holidays, dinners and house concerts, he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levin has also been a tour guide, taking Montero Moya on a family trip to Washington, D.C., during Thanksgiving, Montero Moya\u2019s first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want Adrian to have the complete American experience,\u201d says Levin. \u201cMy teachers across the years were more than classical guitar instructors; they were guides, mentors, and quasi-parents. I want Adrian to feel part of a community, a musical family, and most importantly learn new musical and cultural customs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Montero Moya has found a mentor in Levin. While Levin has pushed him as a musician, urging him to be more expressive, he has also given Montero Moya an idea of what he\u2019d like his career to look like. \u201cAdam is a huge inspiration,\u201d he says. \u201cHe has two duos and a trio, he plays with orchestra, he plays solo, and he runs a guitar education non-profit organization, Kithara Project. I don\u2019t know how he does it to be honest but he\u2019s a huge inspiration. I want to develop that, but I also love teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During short breaks, he has continued to compete in guitar competitions this year, winning the Southwest Guitar Symposium in San Antonio, taking second at the Appalachian State Guitarfest in Boone, North Carolina, and advancing to the semifinals of the Columbus State University competition, one of the toughest in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for now, he\u2019s preparing for the April 22 concert in the Fine Arts Center. Mora-Jimenez, who wrote the title piece for Montero Moya\u2019s second album, \u201cSonatas and Partita,\u201d has written a concerto for him influenced by Rodrigo\u2019s \u201cConcerto de Aranjuez.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has really beautiful harmonies and melodies,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of the music I play isn\u2019t necessarily beautiful. It\u2019s lively, rhythmic, even grotesque sometimes. But this new piece is gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Montero Moya\u2019s performance with the 溏心vlog免费B站 Symphony Orchestra is Saturday, April 22, at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston. Tickets \u2013 $15 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors \u2013 can be purchased on the event website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 10, 2023 \u2013 Adrian Montero Moya says he doesn\u2019t believe in destiny. But there are moments in his 27 years, he admits, that have the feeling of fate, or at least good luck. Case in point: How the Costa Rican native chose the 溏心vlog免费B站 to pursue a master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":85149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85152,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85133\/revisions\/85152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}