Gloria Velasco, AJSO Conductor

Gloria has been the AJSO Conductor since its inception in 1997. She first began teaching orchestra in the Albuquerque Public Schools in 1974. After a few years of teaching she left the district only to return ten years later to be once again active in public school teaching, private teaching, and professional playing.

She began her professional playing career with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and presently performs with the Santa Fe Symphony. Ms. Velasco, fluent in Spanish, teaches in a primarily Hispanic public school and is also a coordinator and certified Suzuki teacher with the University of New Mexico String Pedagogy Program. The mother of two daughters who both performed in all of the groups including the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, she looks forward to the continuing development of Albuquerque Junior String Orchestra and the entire Albuquerque Youth Symphony program.