Facundo Ortega

Mauro Facundo Ortega is a junior majoring in Music Performance and studying with Ann Marie Brink and Wei-Ting Kuo at DePaul University. Facundo started his undergraduate education in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the National University of the Arts in 2019 and in 2020 received the Mozarteum Argentino, the highest national scholarship award, to cover his studies in Buenos Aires during 2020. In 2021, he transferred to DePaul University with a full tuition merit scholarship through his Argentinian sponsor, Andrés de la Cruz, founder of the Festival de los Siete Lagos.

Facundo started his formal music studies at age thirteen in Buenos Aires and began playing in a school symphony orchestra at fourteen. Two years later he joined a string chamber orchestra, Cofradía Youth Orchestra, where he performed as a soloist. Before moving to Buenos Aires, he was the principal viola for the first Youth Municipal Cameratta in his village San Carlos de Bariloche for two years. He has furthered his studies in masterclasses with Astrid Schween (Juilliard String Quartet), Peter Slowik at DePaul, and Mimi Zweig (Indiana University Jacobs School of Music) in Buenos Aires at the National University of Arts in 2019. Facundo also has performed in many orchestral, chamber music groups, and summer music festivals including DePaul Concert Orchestra, Patagonia Symphony, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and Festival de los Siete Lagos in Argentina, among others.