MIXTI (they/them) formerly known as Helena Colindres is a versatile vocalist, educator, consultant, speaker, and activist of Nahua ancestry. As a rising opera vocalist, they have performed roles such as Despina in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte, the Governess in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Therese in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles di Tiresias, the Königin from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Iris in Handel’s Semele, the title roles in Handel’s Serse as well as Pollock’s Earth to Kenzie, and made their professional debut as Winnie in Beecher’s Sky on Swings with Opera Saratoga. 

In addition to their opera experience, they have also had the pleasure of performing as a concert soloist in works such as Handel’s Messiah, Rutter’s Magnificat, Fauré’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, and Larson’s A God in Disguise with the latter being in Davies Symphony Hall. One of their career highlights has been performing alongside the Alexandria Orchestra under the baton of Maestro James Ross in a program curated to showcase Mixti’s versatility as a vocal artist with a program consisting of R&B, oratorio, and folk music.

Mixti has also participated in various master classes with established operatic figures including Evelyn Mandac, Kevin Murphy, and Marilyn Horne. Marilyn Horne loved Mixti’s trills. Additionally, Mixti has won first place at various competitions such as the Camille Coloratura Awards and the Sylvia Green Voice Competition. They were also a finalist in the prestigious Washington International Competition and won third at the Wonderlic Competition. Mixti is also a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda Honors Association. 

They enjoy putting on recitals as well because these are some of the few spaces in which Mixti can truly be themselves on the stage, can make all the artistic choices they want, and where they get to choose what repertoire they will perform. Mixti will soon be doing a recital with Opera Saratoga featuring only songs highlighting Indigenous people and the cultures of Turtle Island. One of the cycles on the recital was written by Nanzin Anastacia, a Nahuablante of Wizapan that recently passed. A Nahuablante is an indigenous Nahua person whose first language was Nawat, not Spanish. She is the person who gave me my name, Mixti which means cloud in Nawat.

 Mixti is a reconnecting Native who was detribalized for two generations because of the last major genocidal event in El Salvador’s history: “La Matanza”. Over 30,000 indigenous peoples were murdered within one week in 1932. In addition to this violence, the white people in power passed many anti-BIPOC laws such as vagrancy laws which forced people to work under slavery conditions under sharecropping structures which were failing due to the great depression. The white Salvadorians also gave Europeans incentives to come settle the country to make it more white and European. Nawat is considered a “dead” language by colonizers but Indigenous people don’t believe that our languages ever truly die. We are committed to its revitalization, the safety of all Indigenous people, and for us to be able to safely practice our cultures. Music is always political and is more than just beautiful sounds and superb technique, it is about connecting with other living things, our ancestors, and expressing things that words alone simply cannot.

Mixti graduated from the Peabody Conservatory with their MM in Voice and Pedagogy in 2022. They also have a BM in Vocal Performance and a BA in Comparative American Studies with a concentration in Identity and Diversity from the Oberlin College and Conservatory. In addition, they have an AA in Latin American and Latinx studies as well as an AS in Social Sciences from City College of San Francisco.

When they are not singing, they are sharing their knowledge with their community through their private voice studio. They are passionate about teaching voice through an individual-based holistic approach that is anti-racist, anti-ableist, non-gendered, trans-friendly, anatomy-based, cross-trained, dramatically-driven, and brings us closer to our collective liberation. They refuse to put styles and genres into hierarchies and refuse to push the concepts of beauty and perfection onto their students because those concepts are steeped in white supremacy and colonial biases.

Mixti is a neurodivergent, Two Spirit, Native, fat, non-binary, low-income, disabled, afab person. They have had a tumultuous journey so far in creating a path to success as an intersectionally marginalized person in the performing arts because they refuse to leave their morals at the door and are committed to creating the art that their community deserves to enjoy and consume.

Mixti was born and raised on Yelamu Ohlone land which Spanish colonizers named San Francisco. Their family has Nahua, Mayan, African, and European ancestry mainly and had been living on their ancestral lands that their ancestors named Guxgatan until Mixti’s parents were pushed out of the country during the proxy war that the US and Israel funded heavily in the 80s as a part of their war against communism. Mixti has always been committed to being an accomplice to undocumented refugees, especially if they are Native and are always finding more ways to honor and support the people whose land they are currently living on.

 They try to educate themselves and their community because knowledge is power. They have been directly involved with grassroots organizing and community building initiatives and hope to use their singing platform to bring these conversations and themes to spaces that have purposely chosen not to engage with them thus far. They will never accept a seat at the table while their people are left behind, engage in respectability politics, nor will they settle for being a token. They are committed to the liberation and equity of the most marginalized and will always be down to hold people accountable for their hatred. They are fighting to eradicate ableism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, classism, racism, colorism, cults, and all the other ugly ideologies that are weaved into every fabric of this colonial police state.

They find so much joy and pride in knowing that their art is directly impacting people everyday through social media. They have over 8,100 followers on Tik Tok and are excited to build an even bigger following. Mixti is extremely passionate about fighting for marginalized people and they are so grateful that they get to build community through their art, teaching, and organizing for the rest of their life. 

If you are interested in any of the services Mixti offers, please feel free to fill out a contact form by clicking on the word contact at the bottom of this page. Padiux!