About this Artist

Born in Tijuana, B. C., México, on the border with the U.S. city of San Diego, Alfonzo Sanchez Betanzo 

began his musical studies at a very early age as a choirboy with José Medina. At the age of eight, he started taking flute lessons with Leopoldo González in the Baja California Orchestra (OBC) Music Conservatory, and later he continued in the Tijuana Youth Symphony (SJT) with Andrés Olivares as his teacher. There he would participate in regional and national orchestra meetings both as a flute and piccolo player. He took piano lessons with OBC pianist Oxana Bulgakova and chamber music with Dr. Farizat Tchibirova. In 2011, he moved to the new community orchestra project that maestro Eduardo García Barrios began in Tijuana, both as a student and instructor. There he had the opportunity to collaborate with the OBC as a sub and soloist. He participated in 2013 and 2014 editions of the Children´s Symphonic Orchestra of México (OSIM) in their national tours, with maestra Julieta Cedillo as the flute specialist teacher. In 2014, he moved to Mexico City to continue his studies under the guidance of Mexico National Symphonic Orchestra (OSN) principal flutist Julieta Cedillo, who remains his teacher in both National Music Conservatory (CNM) and School Orchestra Carlos Chávez (OECCh). 

In 2016, OEECh collaborated with the Bundesjugendorchester, with Alondra de la Parra on the podium, in the opening concert of México-Germany dual year in Palacio de Bellas Artes. In 2018 and 2020, he won the intern competition to play as soloist with OECCh. Also in 2018, he was invited twice to sub in the OSN under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto and participated in the concert “Meetings, México, and the Americas” that was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. In 2019, he traveled with OECCh to Guanajuato, México, to the 47th International Cervantino Festival (FIC) where they mixed the genius of Eisenstein and Revueltas. Later that year, he played in the IBERORQUESTAS program that reunited young musician from all Hispanic countries. That same year, he was able once more to play under the baton of maestro Gustavo Dudamel and Paolo Bortolameolli thanks to the YOLA tour to México City. 

He has taken masterclass with personalities like Ria Georgiadis, Adam Walker, Jonathan Borja, and the Trio d´Argent, to name a few. As an orchestra player, he has worked with conductors such as Enrique Diemecke, Enrique Patrón de Rueda, Kenneth Kiesler, Tymothy Brock, Iván López Reynoso, Ricardo Averbach, José Luis Castillo, José Guadalupe Flores, Ariel Britos, Arturo Márquez, and Eduardo García Barrios, among others, and he has accompanied soloists such as Arón Bitrán, Iñaki Alberdi, Vladimir Petrov, Michael Nyman, Horacio Franco, and Mikhail Voskresensky.