Jesus Fuentes

Jesús Fuentes was born in Cd. Juarez, Mexico. He is an active pianist, arranger and educator. Jesús is currently a DMA candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. holds a MM in Jazz Piano Performance from Texas Tech University and a BM in Commercial Music from the University of Texas at El Paso.

While Jesús is mainly a Jazz pianist, he has studied and regularly performs a variety of genres including Classical, Latin, and most commercial music styles. As a Jazz pianist he has played with world renowned artists such as Tom Harrell, Allen Vizzutti, Jaleel Shaw, Jiggs Wigham, and The Glenn Miller Orchestra. In other genres, Jesus has accompanied artists such as Joe Ely, Mac Davis, Ian Moore, and Il Divo, as well as being a member of the metal band Orcus O Dis.

Jesús has received multiple academic awards throughout his music studies including a Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 2020, where he currently teaches group piano class and Jazz keyboard. Jesús was sponsored by the Promising Artists of the 21st Century Jazz Program to travel to Colombia as a member of the UTEP Jazz Quartet to perform and give masterclasses in 2016, and receiving the 2012 Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award at the University of Texas at El Paso.

As an educator, his musical versatility enables Jesús to relate to students with any musical background to develop their own unique musical voice.