NEGRURA
Fabiola Mari Méndez Quiñones was born on February 20, 1996. She started playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at age 6.
She was a student at the Humacao Musical Institute, the Antonio Paoli School of Music in Caguas, and the Conservatorio de Artes del Caribe. In 2018, she got her Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music, becoming the first student to graduate with the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.
Fabiola has participated in several cuatro competitions winning prizes in all of them, including being selected as the winner of the "National Cuatro Player Competition" in 2011 by the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture. In addition, she has participated in multiple recordings. Foremost among them are: Banco Popular Christmas CD "Eco" (2008), Fabiola Mendez & Herencia Criolla (2009), Ready for Departure (2014), Guille & the B.Band (2015), Al Otro Lado del Charco (2019), which was considered one of the TOP 20 albums of 2019 by the PR National Foundation for Popular Music, and her latest release Afrorriqueña (2021), listen here.
Fabiola has collaborated with artists such as: the Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra, Totó la Momposina, Pedro Capó, Victoria Sanabria, Cucco Peña, Eddie Palmieri, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Danny Rivera, Edwin Colón Zayas, Los Rayos Gamma, among many others.
She has also had the privilege of receiving acknowledgements such as the dedication of the Mapeye Festival 2011, the Quincy Jones Award 2016, ambassador at the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC 2018, and a commendation from the PR House of Representatives for being the first Puerto Rican cuatro player to graduate from Berklee.
Bookings & Collaborations:
fabiolamendezmusic@gmail.com