Juan Francisco Stout

1951 -

Francisco Stout, a singer and professor of sacred music at the University of Montemorelos in Mexico, has been at the school since 1989. He presently serves as Director of Cultural Diffusion at UM, overseeing concerts and art and literature events on campus and tours taken by university groups. When he earlier served as director of the school's choral groups, he led them in a number of major choral works.

A native of Cuba, Stout grew up in a musical family in which his mother played piano and his father, a pastor, played clarinet. He began study in theory and solfeo at age ten, saxophone lessons at age twelve, and serious study in voice at age nineteen. His choir director, Barbara Vivanco, inspired him in his earlier years.

Following completion of secondary school in Cuba in 1969, he enrolled in the Instituto Superior de Arte in that country, where he completed a B.Mus. in conducting and voice in 1983. He also took classes in theology in the Seminario Adventista de Cuba during these years.

While studying at the institute and seminary, Stout also taught and served as a pastor, district leader, and director of the music department in the Cuban Union office of the Adventist church. From 1987 to 1989, he was professor of sacred music and voice and diction at the Adventist seminary in Cuba.

Since the end of that appointment, he has taught in the music department at UM and is associated with the postgraduate program in the Inter-American Theological Seminary sponsored by that division. An ordained minister, Stout also serves as minister of music at the UM church.

He completed an M.Ed. in administration in 1994 and a Ed.D. in 2006 at UM. His dissertation was titled Factors Related to the Concepts of Adoration and Philosophy of Music held by Pastors in Mexico.

In 1990 Stout was a vocal soloist with the UM band at the General Conference Session in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ten years later, he took the UM choir to the General Conference Session in Toronto, Canada. He has also toured with the choir in the U.S., Cuba, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Stout's wife, Inés Maria, is a teacher at the academy associated with UM. They have two sons, Norm and Ornán.

ds/2008

Source: information provide by Juan Francisco Stout and translated and revised by Ruth Ann Wade, 2008.