Educator

M.M Carmen Alfaro Méndez

Alfaro is currently a professor at the National University of Costa Rica. She teached also at the National Music Institute of Costa Rica, along with ACUA Academy’s percussion and drums department director. Has directed and organised several percussion festivals, among them “Repercusiones en Costa Rica” 2007 and 2009, and the “MUENPE Percussion Festival”. Her career as an educator stands out for its integral approach to interpretation and musical learning. 

Has a masters degree in percussion pedagogy, orchestral percussion, and chamber music, along with a specialist degree in soloist percussion.

As Dr. Carmen Mendez Navas’s daughter, a distinguished figure in the area of musical education and founder of FLADEM, Alfaro grew up alongside innovative and transcendental pedagogical approaches such as the Dalcroze Eurythmics, Murray Schafer philosophy and concepts and open musical didactic methodologies.

The latter, conjoined with her eventual professional studies and work experience with assorted age-groups, disembogued in an integral, pioneering musical education system based around musical interpretation, one which ensures the student’s excellence and success. 

Alfaro has taught masterclasses, both virtual and personally, in the following countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Croatia, and Costa Rica.