Stephanie F. Valadez
Valadez is a dual-national musician and scholar based in California and Mexico City. She is currently a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA, serves as the University of California Graduate and Professional Student Council, is the Executive Director of Xicameri Productions, and maintains a private teaching studio. Valadez holds a Master of Arts in Music (Cross-Cultural Musicology) from the University of California, Santa Cruz and two Masters of Music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in Music Composition and Music Performance: Marimba. In her spare time, she enjoys creating children’s books in Nahuatl for her two sons as part of her commitment to decolonial parenting practices.
Pronounced: SheE-kah-méh-ree
Xicameri Productions
Stephanie Valadez and Jack Van Geem, Principal Percussionist Emerita of the San Francisco Symphony, originally founded Xicameri as a marimba duo in 2017. Together they curated and performed concerts focused on Latin America and its diaspora with themes of community, dance, human rights, and decolonization.
In 2021, Xicameri was restructured to include dance and other musicians. Xicameri Productions works to tell the stories of under-represented members of the latin community as well as people who have suffered at the hands of oppressive governments, particularly throughout the Americas.
Xicameri Productions uplifts the voices of under-represented communities and promotes justice and equal opportunity through its thought-provoking music and dance. Xicameri Productions supports artists across the spectrum of humanity and provides accessible performances to an audience with a wide economic and lifestyle range.
Pronounced: SheE-PóH-Wa
Xipohua Publishing
Xipohua Publishing is Valadez’s passion project, started in 2024. Through Xipohua, Valadez creates children’s books in Nahuatl in an effort to pass on the language of her ancestors to her children. Through the language she shares the culture, cosmovision, and world view. One day she hopes to extend the reach of Xipohua to provide decolonial teaching tools to other families across the Americas.
Stephanie Valadez, M.M. 