Adriana Diaz-Donoso
Music Assistant Professor, Director of Music Education
Music and Performing Arts Professions
Adriana Diaz-Donoso (ella/she/her) is a Music Assistant Professor and Director of Music Education. She holds an M.A. and an Ed.D. in Music Education with concentrations in early childhood education and developmental psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Additionally, Adriana received a B.Sc. from the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Lima-Peru) and studied music at the Asociación Cultural Béla Bartók and the Universidad Nacional de Música del Perú.
She is a Peruvian bilingual (Spanish/English) woman of color and seeks to address social justice issues through the lens of the arts. Her scholarship focuses on equity and access to music education, the role of arts organizations in community building and social change, and diversity issues in music teacher preparation. Her dissertation, entitled “Musical Investment in Early Childhood: An Exploration of Parent-Child Participation in Organized Early Childhood Musical Activities,” examined the intersection of social class and musical parenting, shedding light on musical parenting practices beyond the white-middle-class experience commonly encountered in early childhood music education studies. She co-authored the article “Music as Transitional Object and Practice: Children’s Spontaneous Musical Behaviors in the Subway,” published in Research Studies in Music Education, a peer-reviewed journal.
Adriana has over fifteen years of experience designing and implementing diverse and inclusive programming as well as educational curricula to better engage students from various backgrounds and experiences. In the U.S., she has worked as an educational consultant with Columbia Head Start, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Lincoln Center, and Teachers College Community School. In Peru, she taught general music and piano privately and in schools and was a consultant for the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations. Prior to joining NYU, Adriana was manager of the WeBop program at Jazz at Lincoln Center and adjunct assistant professor of Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship.
Selected Publications
IN THE MEDIA
The Mercury News Opinion: What Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show teaches us about singing in one’s native language
En español: El espectáculo de Bad Bunny en el Súper Bowl enseña sobre defensa de la lengua materna
In her op-ed, Dr. Diaz-Donoso uses Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance to reflect on the importance of singing in one’s native language. She argues that when children hear and sing in the languages they speak at home, music classrooms become spaces of recognition, belonging, and affirmation. Bad Bunny’s visibility on global stages underscores why honoring native languages in music education is not only culturally responsive, but essential for how children learn whose voices matter.
In Macaroni KID: A Conversation on Career Path & WeBop at Jazz at Lincoln Center
In 2022, Macaroni KID, the nation's largest online resource for families, interviewed Dr. Diaz-Donoso about her career journey and work with the WeBop program at Jazz at Lincoln Center. In the interview, Dr. Diaz-Donoso shares insights on how her passion for music and education has shaped her career, as well as the importance of programs like WeBop in making jazz accessible to young children and families.
The Importance of Music in Early Childhood Education: Interview with Dr. Adriana Diaz-Donoso
Dr. Adriana Diaz-Donoso discussed the role of jazz in early childhood education and the benefits of introducing music to children even before birth. She highlighted her research on the use of jazz in educational settings and emphasized the positive impact of musical education from the earliest stages of life. Dr. Diaz-Donoso shared these insights during a seminar at the Carlos Chagas Foundation in São Paulo in August 2014.