Chicago musicians Juan Díes and Víctor G. Pichardo have been named 2026 National Heritage Fellows (NHF), recipients of the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is recognizing the longtime collaborators for more than three decades of work performing, preserving, teaching, and interpreting Mexican son—a broad family of regional musical traditions rooted in communities throughout Mexico.
After arriving in Chicago in the early 1990s, Díes and Pichardo co-founded Sones de México Ensemble in 1994. Over the next three decades, they helped establish Mexican son as a visible part of Chicago’s cultural landscape while bringing lesser-known regional Mexican traditions to audiences across the United States.
Díes and Pichardo will be honored during two public events in Washington, D.C., September 29–30, culminating in the National Heritage Fellowships Awards Ceremony at the Library of Congress. The 2026 NHF class includes eight fellowships representing artists and tradition bearers from Illinois, Texas, Florida, West Virginia, Virginia, Guam, Idaho, and Hawai‘i.
Upcoming projects include a Chicago reception at Sones de México Ensemble’s Gala benefit on November 19, a new 2027 national tour of Beyond the Music: The Secret Life of Birds, and the ensemble’s first tour of Mexico, facilitated by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and its Chicago campus.
Press Contacts:
Juan Díes and Víctor G. Pichardo c/o Sones de México Ensemble info@sonesdemexico.com
(773) 354-7663
Allison Hill
National Endowment for the Arts hilla@arts.gov
(202) 682-5037
PUBLIC EVENTS
Tuesday, September 29, 7pm ET— National Heritage Fellowships Film Screening and Conversations
WHAT: The National Endowment for the Arts will premiere eight short documentary films about the 2026 National Heritage Fellows, filmed in the Fellows’ communities, that explore their lives, art forms, cultural traditions, and efforts to pass their knowledge to others. Together, their stories celebrate the breadth of folk and traditional arts that exist in this country and help tell the story of America. A conversation with the honorees will follow.
WHEN: Tuesday, September 29, 2026, beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET
WHERE: Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle at the Mead Center for American Theater (Arena Stage), 1101 6th St SW, Washington, DC 20024
ONLINE: Watch a preview here: https://youtu.be/4itP0j3J-fg?si=6laZefsGy76eWLgv
Following the premiere, the films will be available on the National Endowment for the Arts website at arts.gov/Heritage and on the NEA’s YouTube page.
Wednesday, September 30, 5:30pm ET— National Heritage Fellowships Awards Ceremony at the Library of Congress.
WHAT: On this day, the 2026 National Heritage Fellows will receive their medals at an award ceremony featuring remarks by the recipients and short musical performances by several honorees. National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter and members of Congress will present the awards. This event is hosted by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.
WHEN: Wednesday, September 30, 2026, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET
WHERE: Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium in the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street SE, Washington, DC.
TICKETS: This event is free and open to the public.
ONLINE: The ceremony will be livestreamed on arts.gov/Heritage and available to watch on demand, along with the films, following the event.
l to r: Pichardo and Díes. Photo by Todd Winters. Courtesy of Sones de México Ensemble.
About the two Chicago Awardees
Díes and Pichardo have worked together for more than three decades to establish Mexican son as an important part of the cultural landscape of the United States, promoting greater appreciation of lesser-known styles of Mexican music, some of them dating back hundreds of years.
While they have maintained strong connections with their Mexican roots, they have also engaged in numerous cross-cultural musical collaborations with blues, classical, Chinese, jazz, Irish, rock, country, African, Indian, Native American, and folk musicians in the United States.
Separately, their complementary careers encompass a broad spectrum of activities including performance, composition, arranging, education, research, mentorship, nonprofit leadership, recording, theater, orchestral work, civic service, and community engagement.
Díes, who was raised in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and Pichardo, a native of Mexico City, both settled in Chicago in the early 1990s. They found a city exceptionally well suited to their work: home to one of the country's largest Mexican communities, a vibrant network of arts and cultural organizations, and a strong tradition of philanthropic support for the arts.
"Chicago was a catalyst for so many things. I don't think our work would have turned out like this anywhere else." - Juan Díes
"Behind our music is the strength of a tradition that is thousands of years old. I believe there is a seed in each of my students that just needs a little water to grow."
- Víctor Pichardo
Juan Díes is an applied ethnomusicologist, musician (guitar, bass, vocals), educator and arts leader whose work combines performance, research, education and community engagement. He majored in Music and Anthropology at Earlham College and received an MA in Folklore/Ethnomusicology from Indiana University. In Chicago, he served as Director of Community Programs for Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music for 13 years and currently serves as Executive Director of Sones de México Ensemble. In 2019, he was named a United States Artists Fellow in traditional arts, and earlier in 2026, he was selected as a recipient of the United States Regional Arts Organization’s (U.S. RAOs’) Walking Together: Investing in Folklife in Communities of Color program.
Víctor G. Pichardo is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and educator whose career in Mexican folk and traditional music spans more than four decades. As a child in Mexico City, he began learning from accomplished practitioners, including his grandfather. In high school, he studied with Mexican classical composer Arturo Márquez and founded Zazhil, his first folk ensemble in 1981, achieving national and international recognition early on alongside other artists including Amparo Ochoa, Óscar Chávez, and Los Morales. He is a prolific composer and arranger whose work takes Mexican traditional forms into orchestral, chamber, choral, and theatrical settings with commissions from the Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and the Goodman Theatre. Pichardo pioneered mariachi in the schools programs in Chicago in the 1990s. He currently serves as Sones de México Ensemble’s Music Director Emeritus and teaches Mexican music at the University of Notre Dame. He has received four Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Awards and five Ethnic and Folk Arts Master/Apprentice grants.
About Sones de México Ensemble
Sones de México Ensemble is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to promoting greater appreciation of Mexican folk and traditional music and culture through innovative performance, education, research, and dissemination. Since 1994, when founded in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, the ensemble has specialized in the diverse regional traditions collectively known as Mexican son and performs on more than 80 traditional instruments. Its work encompasses live performance, recordings, original compositions, educational programs, school residencies, workshops, cultural research, mentorship, cross-cultural collaborations, and community engagement. The ensemble has earned GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations and has performed throughout the United States and internationally.
About the National Heritage Fellowships
Presented by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Heritage Fellowships recognize individuals and groups for their artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage. Including the 2026 class, the Arts Endowment has awarded 502 National Heritage Fellowships since 1982, recognizing artists working in more than 200 distinct art forms, including bluegrass musicians, blacksmiths, tap dancers, quilters, folklorists, and many others. More information about the National Heritage Fellows is available on arts.gov/Heritage.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing opportunities for arts participation and practice, the Arts Endowment fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States. To learn more, visit arts.gov.
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