Angélica (Angie) Durrell

Founder

Angélica “Angie” Durrell is an Ecuadorian-born violinist, educator, and social entrepreneur. She was recognized as one of Musical America’s Top Movers and Shakers in the Performing Arts. Angie is a sixth-generation musician from the Godoy family-- a family of musicians from the Chimborazo region in Ecuador, from her maternal side. Angie is the founder and former CEO of INTEMPO—a Connecticut-based creative youth development organization dedicated to making music and cultures relevant, accessible and inclusive for all. Currently, she is the Director of Programs for the Office of the Arts at Harvard.

Under her leadership, INTEMPO has grown to serve hundreds of children in the Fairfield County area and open the city’s first Community Arts and Cultural Center. INTEMPO won the prestigious 2021 Impact Fairfield County award and the 2022 Accelerator Award from the Lewis Prize for Music; was a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award finalist, and premiered a new multimedia commission featuring the Grammy-nominated PUBLIQuartet at Carnegie Hall, hosted by the PlayUSA network. Durrell has secured funding from the US Department of State and devised international partnerships that led to a new groundbreaking work by Latin Grammy award-winning composer, Gabriela Lena Frank, for an all-native Andean instrument ensemble (Orquesta de Instrumentos Andinos in Quito, Ecuador) which became the subject of a PBS documentary, Compadre Huashayo.

Durrell spearheaded the advocacy efforts to establish the first Arts and Culture Commission for the City of Stamford and became the first Latina commissioner for the second largest city in Connecticut. She now serves on the national task-force for the Arts & Economic Prosperity Study (AEP6) for Americans for the Arts in Washington, DC. Her leadership has been recognized by the National Assembly of Ecuador through the Immigrant Women Award. Angie was named a cultural ambassador between the sister cities of Riobamba (Ecuador) and Norwalk (CT). As a public speaker, she has made presentations on social entrepreneurship at Princeton and the University of Michigan. Her TEDx talk has been acclaimed for creating institutional awareness and action towards cultural equity and representation.

A classically-trained violinist, her artistic highlights include playing for Pope Francis during his first trip to Latin America and at the Wounded Knee memorial site. She recently premiered a trio piece written for her at the Jorgensen Center and for the 2023 Composers Now Festival opening night, hosted by Tania León.

Angie was an inaugural Sphinx LEAD fellow (Leaders in Excellence, Arts & Diversity), designed to evolve the industry landscape by empowering the next generation of executive leaders. Sphinx Organization’s Founder Aaron Dworkin, a 2005 MacArthur Fellow and President Barack Obama’s first nominee for the National Council for the Arts, has been Durrell’s mentor since 2007. Angie holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Connecticut and is currently pursuing an MBA at Sacred Heart University. She serves as an artist ambassador for SpreadMusicNow and resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.