Maestro Winner – Xavier Montes
Artist, Musician, Educator
Santa Paula, CA
Whether it is working with “Angels with Harps” on Saturday mornings in Oxnard, welcoming neighborhood kids his porch in Santa Paula to learn music, Xavier Montes, artist, musician and aptly recognized as a former “Santa Paula Citizen of the Year,” and awarded a LAN Maestro Prize in 2011.
Xavier a Santa Paula native, who began his long journey as an artist and arts educator after receiving his BA in studio art and teaching credential from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Over the years he has combined his love for music, art and culture with a dedication to community activism, and as a result has become a well known and beloved arts leader in the Ventura county area. He leads his all girl “Angels with Harps” class on Saturday mornings in Oxnard, and teaches guitar to a group of neighborhood kids, “Conjunto Callejon,” a group that literally began by hanging out on his porch.
His work as a Chicano artist has manifested as a practicing visual artist (acrylics), as an educator, and as a musician (folk harp, guitar, and vocals). Montes has exhibited throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for years and has also been invited to exhibit his art in San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Xavier Montes is a musician and vocalist and accomplished guitarist and harpist who has also released two CDs, “Xavier Montes Goes Instrumental” and “Xavier Montes Again! Noche Tropical.”