Resident Teaching Artist; Director of Guitar Studies
Dr. José Gabriel Maldonado Suárez is a musician, arts leader, and educator from Puerto Rico based in New York City. As a soloist, José performs programs that include works from the classical canon and music from his native Puerto Rico. Maldonado performs using both the modern classical guitar and a 19th-century replica to showcase the rich variety of timbres that characterize the guitar’s diverse historical sound.
José is co-founder of Dúo Copla, a classical guitar duo dedicated to performing, arranging, and recording works by Puerto Rican composers. Dúo Copla, has released three recordings: Dos Danzas (2021), dedicated to the works of Leonardo Egúrbida (1945–2022); Sonatina Tropical (2023), featuring music by Ernesto Cordero (b. 1946); and Cuatro Danzas (2025), focused on the music of the 19th-century composer Juan Morel Campos (1857–1896).
Maldonado is also co-founder of Weiwei & José, a classical guitar and piano duo that explores repertoire from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, while drawing additional inspiration from contemporary Puerto Rican music and Chinese folk traditions. The duo has recorded works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Mauro Giuliani (1781–1829), and Manuel Ponce (1882–1948). Weiwei & José is a recipient of a 2026 grant from Chamber Music America’s Ensemble Forward program, funded through the generosity of the New York Community Trust.
As an arts leader, Dr. Maldonado Suárez curates events that celebrate voices from underrepresented communities in the classical music field. He has served as an Audience Development and Engagement Consultant for the Brooklyn Classical Guitar Society and was invited to contribute his expertise as a member of the Advisory Council: Building Equity for BIPOC Artists at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Queens, NY. Additionally, he was selected to join the 2023 inaugural cohort of the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE) Mentorship Program.
José has received invitations to perform at prestigious institutions, including Hunter College, Stony Brook University, John Jay College, the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, Marshall University, Middlebury College, Columbia University, the Brooklyn Classical Guitar Society, the Long Island Guitar Festival, and the 2024 Festival Internacional de Guitarra Ximénez Abril in Perú. More recently, he was invited as a Guest Artist for the 2026 William Paterson University Guitar Festival and has served as guest faculty for the 2025 and 2026 New York Guitar Seminar at Hunter College (CUNY).
Dr. Maldonado Suárez is the Director of Guitar Studies at Bloomingdale School of Music, where he teaches classical guitar performance, chamber music, and curates all public programming for the guitar department. Simultaneously, he is a faculty member in the Department of Art & Music at John Jay College (CUNY), where he teaches guitar performance and music history.
José holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) and a Master of Music (MM) from Stony Brook University. Additionally, he earned a Master of Arts (MA) in Arts Administration from Baruch College and a Bachelor of Music (BM) from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.
