Recently featured in the National Endowment for the Arts, "American Artscape" Magazine, José Antonio Diaz is the founder/artistic director for the award-winning organization Diaz Music Institute in Houston, Texas. Honored as a Texas UIL Sponsor of Excellence, Country Music Association Foundation's Music Teacher of Excellence, Diaz is a 2017 Grammy Nominated Music Educator Top 10 Finalist, winner of Berklee College of Music's John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year Award, LULAC Educator of the Year Award and recipient of the Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Award. Inducted into DownBeat Magazine's Jazz Education Hall of Fame, Diaz's success was the subject of a featured cover story in SBO Magazine, Band Director's Guide Magazine, the Houston Chronicle, and selected by FOX 26 and Univision Television stations as a Hispanic Hero. Jose was inducted into the Texas Christian University Band Hall of Fame and received the prestigious Jefferson Award for his work with Diaz Music Institute. Jose won the Houston Arts Alliance 2020 Support for Artists and Individual Creatives Grant (Diaz has won this award six times). Jose's leadership has led Diaz Music Institute to become internationally recognized as a premier organization for presenting, developing, and teaching Latin jazz and salsa music. The Houston community enjoys Diaz's innovative programming through Diaz Music Institute's annual presentation of Noché Caliente at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. Performing in Noché Caliente is the Institute's repertoire ensemble Caliente in musical dialogue with some of Latin music's biggest stars, such as NEA Jazz Master Candido, Pete Escovedo, Eddie Palmieri, and Poncho Sanchez, to name just a few. Also, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities selected Diaz Music Institute as a finalist for the 2010 and 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards. As an artist, Jose has received four grants from the Houston Arts Alliance to support his creative writing in Latin, jazz, and contemporary music compositions.  Diaz recently served as the vocal recording engineer for Mister G and Jose V's "Ritmo Y Rima" and the Global Citizen Ensemble's "Children of the World" Albums. Jose has performed with such artists as Carl Allen, Ndugu Chancler, Jon Faddis, Conrad Herwig, Brian Lynch, Danilo Perez, Patrice Rushen, David Sanchez, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres, Bill Watrous, and Miguel Zenon. Jose's jazz ensembles have also performed multiple times at some of the most prestigious international events, including but not limited to the Midwest Clinic, Jazz Education Network (JEN), Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), Oregon Music Educators Association (OMEA), Texas Bandmasters Association (TBA), and National Association for Music Education (NAfME). In addition to bringing groups to significant conferences, Jose has presented workshops for organizations such as the Midwest Clinic, Jazz Education Network, Berklee College of Music, Jazz Institute of Chicago, Conservatorium aan Zee in Oostende, Belgium, California Music Educators Association, Oregon Music Educators Association, University of Missouri - St. Louis, Baylor University, Texas Music Educators Association, Virginia Music Educators Association, Western International Band Clinic, National Association of Black School Educators, Texas Music Symposium, National Association for Music Education and the National Association of Schools of Music. Jose graduated from the University of Arkansas (BSE) and Texas Christian University (MME). He is on the board of Directors for The Midwest Clinic and is a member of JEN, NAfME, TBA, TMEA, Phi Beta Mu, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Phi Mu Alpha fraternities. Diaz is also co-author of Middle School Music Expressions™ (Alfred Music Publication) and composed the music for Freddie the Frog and the Invisible Coquí (Mystic Publishing, Inc.); this book won Creative Child's Magazine's 2016 Book of the Year.