KINGSTON, R.I. – March 5, 2025 – Luis Viquez, director of orchestral studies at the University of Rhode Island, has been elected president of the College Orchestra Directors Association, which will hold its 2026 national conference at URI.
The national association is the main professional organization dedicated to the advancement of college and university orchestra directors and their students. With about 400 members across the U.S. and abroad, CODA promotes the development of college and university orchestra programs, along with the art of conducting, teaching and performing orchestral music.
“This is a great opportunity to serve my colleagues and the field,” said Viquez, a member of the association for about a decade. “I joined CODA when I was a young faculty member right out of graduate school for my doctorate. I’ve received outstanding opportunities for networking and mentorship. From the members in the organization, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge that I would never have acquired otherwise.”
As president, Viquez’s most important initiative is organizing the national conference early next year on his home turf at URI. The event will bring about 150 members—educators and students—to URI’s Kingston Campus from Feb. 25 to March 1, 2026—just in time to show off the new Fine Arts Center, which has undergone a $90 million makeover.
“I want to bring members to Rhode Island. This is a great opportunity. Not only are we the number-one public university in New England but also an R1 institution,” said Viquez, who lives in Westerly. “This is the type of artistic endeavor that an R1 institution does in the field of music.”
URI’s 55-member Symphony Orchestra will have the honor of performing the conference’s opening concert—one of only four orchestras that will be invited to perform. The night will include a collaboration with the URI Concert Choir, a select group that specializes in the great choral repertoire from the Renaissance to the present, and feature a composition by music professor Eliane Aberdam.
“For us, it’s major because we not only open the stage for a national conference, but also our music students will be able to mingle with conductors and musicians from all over the world here on our very own campus and in the soon-to-be-brand-new Fine Arts Center,” said Viquez, who is also assistant professor in orchestral conducting and instructor in clarinet at URI.
Viquez, an award-winning performer and conductor, joined URI in fall 2023 after seven years as director of orchestral activities and music director at the University of South Dakota. Under his direction the orchestral program earned national and international attention as one of the top programs in the Midwest, along with a nomination for a Latin Grammy Award.
“My wife and I wanted to live in a place that would be more diverse and closer to major metropolitan areas,” said Viquez, a native of Costa Rica. “I just spent the last two days attending rehearsals at the Symphony Hall in Boston. I would never have had such an opportunity as a conductor in South Dakota, even though we had an outstanding music program.
“I remember the day that I landed at T.F. Green Airport, I said, ‘My goodness, this is a gorgeous place to live.’ And URI has been a very welcoming institution.”
In less than two years at URI, Viquez said he’s seen an increase in musicians interested in joining the orchestra and an improvement in their technical ability. As orchestra director, he has also promoted the performance of music by underrepresented composers. The symphony has performed works by composers from New York, Costa Rica and South Dakota, along with works by Aberdam.
His goal is to continue to grow and elevate the quality of the orchestra program, not only by increasing the number of music majors in orchestral studies but also by positioning the symphony as a leading orchestra in New England, he said.
As in South Dakota, he has also started recording the symphony, using a class each semester as a recording session with the hopes of releasing an album of works by underrepresented composers.
“You still have to play Mozart and Beethoven,” he said. “But we also want our students to be conscious that there are many voices in music history from today and from the past that deserve representation in the orchestral canon. And we want to be doing this by programming and promoting that music as part of orchestral studies here.”