Goals and Pillars 

Creation
To commission composers, lead consortia, host competitions and incubate new works.

Exchange
To support educational and cultural exchange through symposia, tours, conferences and courses.

Resonance
To expand access to new works by offering platforms for presentation and pathways to publication. 

History

The seeds of the initiative were planted in 2019, when Dr Brian Messier, Director of the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, was struck by the lack of access to wind band music by Mexican composers. There was a shortage of information and few channels to inspire and support the creation and performance of new music. As a response, the Hopkins Center hosted the 2020 Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble Composition Competition, aimed at encouraging new works by composers living in Mexico and the United States. This competition was wildly successful in surfacing the artistic interest among artists and audiences, and at the premiere concert in 2022 featuring these compositions, the Mexican Repertoire Initiative was founded.

The inaugural MusicMexico Symposium followed in May 2022, featuring concerts, academic sessions. Messier, composer Enrico Chapela and the Hop developed the Mexican Repertoire Collection—an open-source, searchable, and sortable database of authentic Mexican works. Building on this momentum, Messier and Chapela launched the Mexican Composer Incubation Coalition with an online composition course, designed for Mexican composers interested in writing for wind bands. To further expand these efforts, we established the Mexican Composer Incubation Coalition, bringing together a network of US institutions and Mexican partners.

In March 2023, the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble (DCWE) embarked on its first Mexico City tour, performing alongside the Banda Sinfónica FaM UNAM at Sala Nezahualcoyotl and the CECAMBA Banda Sinfónica in Puebla. Messier and the Wind Ensemble—often joined by partners from UNAM and other guest artists—have showcased works from the Mexican Repertoire Initiative in numerous cities and venues, including New England Conservatory's historic Jordan Hall, Smith College, and Cornell University. Notably, they performed at the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Convention at Cornell University with guest artists from Mexico City.