A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Sandra Morales Corrales is an accomplished violinist and educator, currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Berea College and director of the mariachi ensemble. She is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at West Virginia University. Morales holds a Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance from Distrital University in Bogotá and a Master’s degree in Violin Performance from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Before pursuing graduate studies in the United States, Morales performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia for five years, touring internationally in Oman and Peru. She has also participated in major music festivals in Colombia, Germany, Brazil, Chile, and the United States. An active performer, she has recorded with diverse artists and is a two-time Latin Grammy Award winner (2014, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album with Fonseca and the National Symphony Orchestra; 2019, Best Classical Album with Nueva Filarmonía).
Morales is a certified Suzuki teacher and an experienced pedagogue. She served as a Teaching Fellow at the Interlochen Arts Camp in 2021 and 2022, where she taught violin and chamber music and performed with faculty ensembles, including the Montani Quartet. Prior to her appointment at Berea College, she taught at Brighton Music Center, maintained a private violin studio, and was a faculty member of the Young Artists Debut Orchestra’s Summer Music Academy in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Her artistic and educational work extends beyond the classical tradition into mariachi performance and pedagogy. She served as Music and Artistic Director of Mariachi Internacional de Pittsburgh and was co-writer of a 2022 grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, through which she designed and presented an educational concert series centered on mariachi music and community engagement. In 2025, she was invited to present as a clinician for Mariachi Education at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) Conference.
In addition to her teaching and outreach, Morales performs regularly as a substitute violinist with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Ohio Valley Symphony, and other regional ensembles. She is a graduate of the Global Leaders Program in social entrepreneurship, cultural agency, and teaching artistry, through which she has given recitals and workshops in Washington, D.C., Quebec, and Chile. A passionate advocate for the transformative power of music, she has also taught in Tocar y Luchar – Cafam, Colombia, an El Sistema–based program serving underserved schools in Bogotá. She firmly believes in social transformation through the arts and the power of music to connect communities.