Welcome to Del Valle Orchestra Website! My name is Lourdes Salazar and I am the orchestra teacher at Del Valle Elementary as well as Mission Valley Elementary. I am a proud Alumni of Riverside Middle and Riverside HS. I graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a bachelors in Music Education.

As a child I learn to play the violin my 6th and 7th year in elementary/middle school. I found performing to be thrilling, exciting and enjoyable with friends as we would serenate in homes and assemblies. My 8th grade year on to college I joined the band where I played the saxophone. I partook in All Region, All Region-Jazz, and Solo and Ensemble. At the University of Texas at El Paso I participated in the Wind Symphony Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Jazz Lab Bands I and II, occasionally with the Symphony Orchestra, and the UTEP Dinner Theatre. I never did stop loving the violin and would find myself yearnings to pick it up again for pedagogical classes.

I am proud and excited to say that this 2018-2019 is my first school year as a teacher! My goal is to be like THOSE teachers who believed, supported, and pushed me to be the person/ musician I am today. My goal is to share my passion, show the students how much hidden talent they possess while having fun learning a new instrument. Music is more than just following instruction on a page; music is creativity, it is the capability of communication through sound and silence. “There is no greater magic than to see the light in their eyes and to see someone becoming the opposite of apathetic, the opposite of paralyzed but the to be actively engaged” -Yoyo Ma