Elkin Mosquera
Elkin Mosquera, a singer, conductor, and piano technician, has taught in the Seventh-day Adventist Church educational system and in public schools. He is active as a professional soloist and also has played an important leadership role in the Colombian Mission Project, an organization based in the U.S.
Elkin was born in Medellin, Colombia, and spent his childhood living in various cities in that country. His father, a pastor in the Adventist church, is an amateur musician who encouraged his son's interest in music. Although his first childhood musical activity was singing, he then learned to play the recorder, guitar, and piano.
Serious study in music started at the Adventist University of Colombia (UNAC) where Mosquera studied voice and conducting with Philip Hayden and vocal performance with Detlef Sholz. He completed a B.Mus. in music education in voice and choral conducting in 1984 and subsequently graduated from the University of Massachusetts with an M.Mus. in choral conducting in 2006.
He directed the handbell, chamber, and symphonic choirs at UNAC from 1989 to 1996, taught music in the Worcester, Massachusetts, Public School system from 1998 to 2004, and conducted the church choir at Atlantic Union College. He has been teaching in the Gwinnett County, Georgia, school system since 2004, where he teaches music.
Mosquera performed at the 1995, 2000, and 2010 SDA General Conference Sessions, participates at lay festivals in the North American Division; gives concerts and seminars at Adventist churches in Inter-America, North America, and Europe; and performs on the 3ABN Latino television network. He also serves as the Southern Union Hispanic Coordinator for Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI).
Mosquera is president of the Colombian Mission Project, an international nonprofit organization that promotes and sponsors mission programs in Colombia, including educational and evangelistic projects, orphanages, and construction of churches and schools. Based in the U.S., CMP was founded in 2004 by Elkin and his wife, Sandra Mosquera Rodriquez, who is also a teacher with a master's degree in Education/ESOL from Antillean Adventist University. It gained nonprofit status in 2007.
CMP is the result of experiences in his career that led him to work for the good of children, education, and the church. He presently facilitates his goals in these areas through two websites;
www.colombianmissionproject.org and www.elkinmosquera.com.The Mosqueras have two children, Lucelly and Johanna, who are eighteen and fifteen respectively.
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Source: Northern Union Outlook, 20 July 1950; 18 January 1955; 1920 and 1930 U.S. Federal Census; Minnesota Death Index, 1908- 2002.