About the artist

José María Obeso (in short “Chema”) belongs to a generation of mexican guitarists who are musically active in Europe, his interpretations of Latin American repertoire has been the sign of his concerts. He was born in Guamúchil, Sinaloa, México and started to play the guitar at the age of 11 with Profesor Cesáreo Martínez Tavizón.

In 2003 he entered the Conservatorio de las Rosas in Morelia, México, and joined Professor Miguel Castellanos Martínez guitar class. Later, he also studied in the same institution with Professor Rodrigo Nefthalí López.

He attended master classes with teachers of international reputation as Judicael Perroy (France), Pablo Márquez (Argentina), Hopkinson Smith (USA-Switzerland), Adam Holzman (USA), Adriano del Sal (Italy), Sergio Damián Wilson (México), Zoran Dukić (Croacia) and Leo Brouwer (Cuba).

After finishing with honors his studies at the Conservatorio de las Rosas in 2011 he was accepted at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, to study Instrumental (Gesangs) Pädagogik with Professor Paolo Pegoraro (Classical guitar) and Professor Martin Wiederhofer (Jazz and Popular Music) where he got his Teaching Qualification in 2016.

He has been performing solo concerts and together with chamber music ensembles and with orchestras as a soloist, as well as arranging songs and playing with different Latin-Jazz bands (including also Latin American music) while touring in Europe in cities of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Holland, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Portugal.

In 2017 he won the position as a guitar teacher (Classical guitar and Electric guitar) in the Music School of the city of Gleisdorf, Austria, (in german Musikschule Gleisdorf) where he conducts the guitar orchestra of the school.

He is founder and artistic director of the Green Guitar Youth Festival in Graz.