José Antonio Díaz, founder and artistic director of Díaz Music Institute (DMI), is a GRAMMY Nominated Top 10 Finalist for the Music Educator, winner of Berklee College of Music’s John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year Award and a recipient of the Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Award. Recently Inducted into DownBeat Magazine’s Jazz Education Hall of Fame, Díaz’s groups have performed with artists including Candido, Pete Escovedo, Jon Faddis, Eddie Palmieri, Danilo Perez, Poncho Sánchez and Arturo Sandoval.

DIaz is co-author of Middle School Music Expressions™ (Alfred Music Publication) and composed the music for Freddie the Frog and the Invisible Coquí (Mystic Publishing, Inc.), which was selected as Creative Child’s Magazine’s 2016 Book of the Year. Currently Diaz is developing a new jazz curriculum entitled About That Jazz.