Mario Yniguez

Mario Yniguez (he/him) is a songwright, performer, multi-instrumentalist, and director/creator from Chandler, AZ. He performs in a number of musical idioms around the world singing, writing, playing, conducting, and producing. 

Inspired by the rock’n’roll and jazz icons of present and past, junior-high-era Mario got his start playing in different bands: punk, ska, reggae/dub and various kinds of rock/metal in middle school. He then jumped into the worlds of band/choral/musical theater and barbershop music at Chandler High School, under the direction of world renowned chorus director, Lori Lyford. From Santana and The Beatles to Sondheim and Bernstein. 

Over the past 3 years, he has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria where he and his band, Harrison Fjord, have an ongoing collaboration with world famous folk singer, Yanka Rupkina, of Trio Bulgarka and Les Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, as well as members of the Latin Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble, The New Bulgarian Voices. The project is an album and documentary package co-produced by acclaimed English filmmaker, Freddie Paull, with the work title, Yanka. The record will be an audible meditation on the experience of the trips to Bulgaria and the nostalgic weight of the universal language of music.

As a guitarist and/or conductor, he has music directed/composed for several productions in Arizona since 2016 (Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, Liz Sawdos’ Runaways, his and Vaibu Mohan’s new work Adi Antham, and Orange Theater’s Ida). Mario produced an album of Vaibu Mohan’s modern song cycle titled, The Nayika Mixtape. This season at ASU, he has produced and composed a new work by Liz Lerman, Healing Wars, and music-directed the 2022 Color Cabaret, Godpsell, and Bright Star.  

As a musical theater and classical vocalist, he has won first place multiple times in both the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s Music Theater Auditions and the National Society of Arts and Letters. In Arizona, He has played in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Secret Garden, Closer Than Ever.

He’s conducted an award-winning mixed barbershop chorus, Sounds of the Mouth Vocal Collective that he formed since 2015 and sings baritone in his barbershop quartet, Eclectones. He has served as a clinician and coach for several youth groups and high schools. 

His indie fusion band, Harrison Fjord, formed in 2014 and is composed of collaborators who grew up together from Chandler, AZ. The band’s often genre-bending music focuses on being accessible and pop-driven, yet progressive. Their music videos have had viral success on reddit and youtube but they’ve been active playing local venues and large scale, multi-media shows at performing arts centers and in 2016 opened for Bernie Sanders. 

Graduated from Arizona State University (2019) with a BMus in Vocal Performance and in 2021, has returned to pursue a MM in Music Direction and Conducting studying with Brian DeMaris. Currently, he is a Faculty Associate Voice Instructor at ASU’s Popular Music Program.

Mario currently lives in Chandler where he has a home recording studio and woodshop called Oakhaus. He loves collaborating with friends on a variety of projects at home and abroad.