Fernando Meza is Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music, where he has been Director of Percussion Studies since 1993. Over this time period, he has built and established in Minneapolis what is considered by many to be one of the most comprehensive centers of percussion studies in the United States. Professor Meza began musical studies in his home country of Costa Rica under the tutelage of Stuart Marrs in 1972 as part of the Costa Rica National Symphony’s Youth Orchestra Program (currently the National Institute of Music of Costa Rica). In 1981 he became the youngest recipient of the Latin Scholars Program Scholarship sponsored by the Organization of American States to participate in a year of intensive studies at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and later traveled to Texas and Michigan to continue his musical studies. Meza holds a master's degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree from Baylor University, and has studied with Stuart Marrs, John Soroka, Larry Vanlandingham, and Michael Udow. He was in charge of the percussion department at The Ohio State University in Columbus prior to his arrival in the Twin Cities and has also served on the faculties of the National Institute of Music and the University of Costa Rica. Prof. Meza has performed in Japan, Latin America, and the U.S. with internationally renowned marimba artist Keiko Abe with whom he recorded Conversation in the Forest for the acclaimed CD Marimba Spiritual - Keiko Abe and the World's Leading Percussionists along with Michael Udow and Gregg Koyle. Meza has also performed as soloist, chamber, or orchestral musician in such places as Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and the Musikverein in Vienna among others, and is in demand locally as a performer with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Bakken Trio, Dale Warland Singers, the conte