Mexican American composer Alida Vázquez Ayala (1930–2016) was an essential figure in the narratives of women pioneers in electronic music and a feminist who actively worked towards achieving spaces of equity for women composers. Still, her life story and work are virtually unknown. This conference intends to celebrate Vázquez’s legacy by hosting key figures in her life – friends, mentors, colleagues, and family, many of whom will meet for the first time in this event— and by offering performances of her work for the first time in decades. The concert will feature David Aguila, Kyle Blair, Ryan Beard,  Alvaro G. Díaz Rodriguez, Mariana Flores Bucio, Alexander Ishov, Ellen Hidson, Myra Hinrichs, Batya MacAdam-Somer, David Savage, Grace Talaski, Min-Seok Ko, and Ilana Waniuk. 

This conference will be a space to critically engage with fundamental topics related to women in the arts during the 20th Century, to feminism, in particular Chicana/Latina feminism, and others such as migration and identity, situated in between the context Vázquez grew up in, in Mexico, and the context she spent most of her life in, in New York City.