When that happens.

When that begin.

Welcome to Horizonte, a weekly series that takes a look at important issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host, Catherine Anaya Llewellyn Sanchez.

Warner was just two years old when his mother, Mexican born lawyer Martha, recognized his talent and enrolled him in music lessons.

At age 14, he became the youngest person at that time enrolled in Juilliard College Division program.

Now 28, he has performed worldwide in front of presidents on all the major networks and much more.

Here is a sample of his music.

So beautiful.

Joining me now is the extraordinary Llewellyn Sanchez Warner.

Thank you so much.

Llewellyn.

Joining us from New York today.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

It is so good to see you.

Do you ever get tired of hearing or seeing yourself perform?

Haha.

Well, you know, I just love music so much.

I always want to hear others playing instead of me.

But no, I never get tired of it.

Well, we don't either.

You've been described as a sensitive and lyrical, poetic, electrifying, a gifted virtuoso.

I'm curious how you would describe yourself, your performing and your talent.

Absolutely.

So as a concert pianist, composer and conductor, I've been lucky too, to travel the world sharing my music from Beethoven concertos and Amsterdam and Rachmaninoff in Singapore to music that focuses on my Mexican American identity, right, right here in the US.

And I think that at its core, I want to move people.

I want to stir people's hearts and intellect and think about the humanity inherent in all of music and what I'm doing.

That's so wonderful to hear.

And, you know, I want people to know exactly how things started for you at such a young age.

You were just two years old when you became fascinated with the piano in your family living room.

Were you already, at that time, just two years old, able to connect and understand music by ear?

Well, what I was told is that I was picking up melodies by ear and then going and playing them at the piano, sometimes just hiding under the bench while someone else was playing, and then again popping out and just trying things.

And I think I love to improvise.

I love to create sounds and and of course, eventually I realized this is really what I wanted to do with my life.

Your mother, Martha.

And by the way, we do have that in common.

Mother's name?

Martha.

Yeah.

She recognized that you loved music and she loved music, too.

But she had a hard time finding someone to give you lessons at such a young age.

Can you tell us the story about what she did to make that happen for you?

Because it's definitely something my mother would have done.

Oh, sure.

Well, the local piano teacher didn't want to work with a two year old.

Understandably so.

My mom went in asking for lessons for myself, and, I was kind of around occasionally popping in, playing something, just just responding to all the music that was going on that I love so much.

And seeing that the teacher said, okay, I sense that there is something here that I can work with.

And then the next time around, it was it was me on the bench.

Well, your teacher was right because, you were just six years old when you made your concerto debut and began performing regularly with orchestras.

Did it occur to you at the time that you were this child prodigy, or did you feel absolutely normal performing the way you were at the level you were at such a young age?

Well, I think that I was grateful to be around some people, even if they were a little older than I, who treated me like a little brother and always made me feel very cozy and respected.

And I think that I just sought to find commonality and people's people's way of expressing music.

However old they were from wherever they were from.

And so I honestly, I wasn't even thinking so much about being younger in this way or that I just was ready to to get to work and that it's a spirit I think I've carried with me ever since.

Well, I read that you were a teenager, just about 13 years old, when you realized that this kind of performance and using your music and your composing was something you wanted to do for the rest of your life, because you wanted to dedicate yourself to making social change through your music.

When did it come about that public service and social change really was the driving force behind a lot of what you were doing with your performances?

Absolutely.

Well, I think in in music in general and certainly in the Latino community, there are so many heroes who I look up to who did exactly this, who found a way to unite people through music and public service.

I think of Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor, and his, Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, El Sistema, helping kids from all around Venezuela play at the highest level and have access to education.

I think of the Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim founding the West East Haven Orchestra, with which I had Israelis and Palestinians performing and rehearsing side by side.

There are so many examples of musicians who have sought a larger purpose beyond just being happy with music, but really using it for advocacy.

And I just was thrilled to have the opportunity to do something, something in that vein myself.

And a turning point for you came when you were 13.

You were the first American guest musician to play with the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra in Baghdad, raising funds for a local children's cancer care clinic.

Baghdad.

If people don't know was a war zone at that time and you have said that it was the first time that you wore a bulletproof vest.

Now others did as well.

But you know, when you hear that, I have to think you're 13 years old.

Were you frightened?

Well, you know, I remember the conductor even had a pistol in his coat pocket during the performance, and the instrumentalists were carrying their instruments in boxes rather than an instrument cases so as to not reveal what it was they were carrying.

There were so many threats from extremists who were against any form of artistic self-expression, and especially something western, like classical music.

But the thing is, I wasn't scared the moment I arrived because the courage and the tenacity of these musicians really just amazed me.

And if they were going through all of this to give back to their community, I really wanted to be right there with them.

And so we crafted a program that had American and Iraqi and European music, and we had Iraqi civilians and American soldiers and different ambassadors in the audience.

And it was a real cross-cultural dialog, and I was so proud to work with them there.

Truly, truly.

And that was inspiring for you.

And in terms of your work in making social impacts through your music.

Tell me a little bit about your work in support of farm workers.

I think that, this is an organization that has had tremendous and profound impact on American life.

And I think performing for kids with that banner without see where their banner has been something very meaningful for me.

So there's that.

There's a Dia de Los Muertos, a day of the dead show that I am very proud to have presented in New York and Chicago and the southwest and L.A.

And basically, we perform great Mexican composers.

Carlos Chavez, Manuel born second Tony Velasquez at Besame Mucho.

But we then have on stage with us dancers wearing Catrina costumes.

I even had a Katrina kind of a face mask or a paint myself.

And they are dressed as luminaries or Mexican writers, artists, politicians, food and Diego, the muralist, Clemente Orozco, Emiliano Zapata.

It goes on and on and on.

And the idea is we wanted to tell these stories of our culture, of our history, to audiences of all ages and kinds, and in the process also show that this holiday, by the way, the idea Los Muertos is not just as macabre and dark as people think.

It's embracing, it's family, it's embracing, it's family friendly.

It gets me excited right now.

And so I think that that our goal really was, was that to just be ambassadors for our culture in front of as many people as possible?

Well, I'm glad that you mention that because we actually have a clip that we can show our viewers just to maximize how important this is for you.

And to you, let's take a look.

One.

This is so stunning and so lively and so beautiful on so many levels.

What kind of reaction to you get to these performances?

Oh, sure.

I think that it really it means a lot for me to be be working with this kind of music.

And I perform international music of all kinds, but this is very close to my heart because of my background, because I have family from Guadalajara, because I, you know, just absolutely love everything about the the warm heartedness that, that, that Mexicans and Mexican Americans bring to the whole world.

And I do think that we get a lot of joy and a lot of excitement from from our audiences energy each time we play.

You know, a lot of the feelings that you describe remind me of a lot of what Bad Bunny says about his music and how it resonates with various communities.

I'm curious, what did you think of his Super Bowl performance?

Oh, God, it was amazing.

I mean, the idea is of love triumphing over hate, but by the way, you know, to the people who say he's not American, he is American, he's Puerto Rican, and he's American in the grander sense of being from the Americas.

But but beyond that, I think just the way you see people dancing all over the world, you see people just finding so much joy.

I was absolutely enthralled with what he did and the message behind what he did.

And so I absolutely loved it.

With Latino pop stars like Bad Bunny experiencing tremendous success.

Do you see some of that recognition making its way to the classical music world at all?

Absolutely.

I think that, well, first of all, I've been lucky to play with many, Latino conductors Jose Luis Dominguez, Carlos Scott, Paolo Bartolomeo Lee, and I've been lucky to perform, all throughout Latin and South America.

I think that also playing music by Mexican composers on the world stage, there's one guy, Carlos Chavez, who wrote a piano concerto that uses Aztec and indigenous sounds, and we present those on the concert stage right next to Beethoven and Rachmaninoff and Chopin, everybody else.

I think that there is such a kaleidoscopic, wondrous and vibrant, sonorous, culture and tradition coming out, coming out of Mexico.

And so definitely, I think I'm noticing that be more recognized.

And I'm trying to help that be more recognized.

Right.

Again, alongside all the Titans, the international titans we know and love.

Going back to your mom for just a moment, we talked about her.

She's from Mexico, and she came to the United States when she was seven.

At a time when our immigrant communities are under attack.

How important is it for music to our healing?

Incredibly important.

I mean, music is one of the universal languages closest to our hearts.

It has these uniting capabilities, and I think that it it's honestly, it's the way we pass down traditions from generation to generation, and we show the best of ourselves to the whole world.

I think that any time a Mexican American artist performs internationally, we're just ambassadors for our culture, showing people who we are when we perform at home, we're able to to further galvanize that this the strength and the spirit of our community to be to be at its full force.

I think that immigrants are what make America great.

They always have.

They always will.

I'm proud to be the child of immigrants.

And so if music is what allows us to to to express this with our full hearts and souls, then that is something I'm extremely honored to continue doing.

Well, you are so passionate and I just love that about you.

And of course you are an exceptional musician and composer.

Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Can you please let people know where they can go to find out where you're performing and learn more about what you're doing?

Absolutely.

So my website is Llewellyn Sanchez werner.com.

My Instagram is at Llewellyn 88 keys.

And there has lots of information about me recordings and dates of where I'm touring next.

You are so wonderful.

It is a pleasure to talk to you and talk about your enormous success.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

It's really been a pleasure, Luella, and thank you so much.

And from all of us here in Arizona, stay warm.

Good to see you.

And that's our show for now.

Thanks for watching.

For orders on that and Arizona PBS, I'm Catherine Anaya.

We'll see you next time at the.

Way that we.