Hispanic Heritage Month Feature: Community Day

El Legado de la Dra. Teresa Lozano Long

Dr. Teresa Lozano Long Community Day video featuring an interview with our own Patrick Slevin.

Dr. Teresa Lozano Long was and continues to be a pillar in the Austin community and an important part of Austin Soundwaves. Our organization would not be where it is today without her generosity and energy, serving as both the founder and first board president in 2011.

Dr. Teresa Lozano Long on the day of our founding in 2011.

Dr. Long aimed to offer access to outstanding arts education to Hispanic youth in Austin, with a focus on orchestra, band, and mariachi. Austin Soundwaves itself was modeled after El Sistema, making it one of the earliest adopters in the United States, and is among the nearly 200 like programs throughout the world as of 2023.

El Sistema is rooted in the principles of music as a vehicle for social change, and was made famous internationally by Dr. Jose Abreu, current LA Phil music director Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela. Our current executive director, Patrick Slevin, was hired back in 2011 to be the first program director and was himself a graduate of the El Sistema Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

We cannot thank Dr. Long enough for what started with 42 students at a single school partnership and now serves more than 1,100 students and 23 school partnerships and programs each year. Even though she passed away in early 2021, Dr. Tereza Lozano Long’s legacy continues in Austin Soundwaves, allowing us to celebrate her not just during National Hispanic Heritage Month but all throughout the year.