Adelaida Oesch Jaramillo is a musician, entrepreneur, and nonprofit leader from Medellin, Colombia. She is the founder and CEO of Cubo Universo Creativo, a cultural center based in Colombia, and a 2025 graduate of the MMIAM program. She currently resides in Quebec City.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Are you an artist?
I’m a pianist. I’ve studied piano my entire life, since I was four years old, and I have an undergraduate degree in piano from EAFIT in Medellin.
As a teenager, I played piano, but also the saxophone and accordion, in several different bands in Medellin. All that is to say that I was very much in “the music scene” in Medellin. My passion is what led me to studying music professionally and making it my career. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else! When I was finishing my university degree, I started a project called Cubo. At first, it was just a school project. It was a space for my friends to rehearse, perform, and share their work. At that time, it was really hard to find places with pianos in Medellin. When I graduated, I kept it going. I rented a house in the countryside, where I live. We started very simply, just a few friends who believed in the idea. Over time, Cubo became more than a place to play music: it became a space to bring people together through art and culture, to celebrate the amazing talent we have in Colombia, and to contribute, in our own small way, to the social transformation of the country.
You started a trend!
Maybe! Anyway, we had a small café to fund our projects and at some concerts there would also be food and drinks. And people came out! To drink, to eat, and to enjoy concerts.
But then people started to say, ‘Oh, this bar is really good.’ Or ‘Oh, I love this restaurant,’ and I was like, ‘This is not a bar, this is a cultural center.’ This was, of course, not what I wanted. And even with people eating and drinking, we were not able to generate the resources necessary to keep the project going.
Together with the Cubo team, we moved to a smaller space in the urban area of town, making it more accessible for the local community. We also decided to close the food and beverage part, which brought new challenges and required us to find different ways to sustain the project. Still, we believed it was the right decision, because our main goal was to create a space to enjoy culture without distractions: a place to experience and share the arts, and to ensure access to culture and education for everyone.
Thanks to this transformation, we’ve been able to grow in new directions. Today, Cubo offers seven clubs, including reading, drawing, and astronomy. We continue to host concerts, welcoming around 200 artists every year, and we’ve also launched an educational program where children from rural areas learn about science, astronomy, music, and lutherie. Seeing how much we’ve grown and evolved, we decided to formalize this process by becoming a nonprofit organization.
Bookbinding activity at Cubo. Photo credit: Ricardo Pineda Rendón.
I saw other non-profit organizations that were doing something similar to us, and who were eligible for open calls and grants from the government. So it was a good time to pivot. Now we are still in the process, waiting for the government to say yes to us, while also exploring new ways to secure funding and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.
It is for this reason that I decided to complete this master’s degree. I wanted to know how people are running nonprofits in other countries. If their situation is similar to my experience as a small business owner turned nonprofit leader in Colombia, or if there are different ideas, strategies that I could leverage. I also wanted to improve my English. I knew it would be necessary, especially if I wanted to apply for international grants.
I think your English is great. So, you joined the program with these goals in mind. What did you discover?
Thank you.
I found that organizations work really similarly around the world. I’m not alone. I understand that every country is different. But there were some similarities, and I was able to find support from the people the program introduced us to and from our formal studies.
Studying in the United States, for example, was really helpful because Americans have a more robust background or strategy for approaching donors than we do in Colombia. I learned all these processes for how to show our work to donors, to show what we are doing with their money in the fundraising courses.
Also, I learned how important data is for everything; for donors, for potential partner organizations; we need data to show our impact on society.
It’s not just skills that I’m taking away, but also big picture questions about classical music that seem to be common across all of our travels. We need to find strategies to introduce people to classical music. There is a perception that orchestra concerts are for older people, and that young people are not interested. This is the same in Colombia. How can we “reinvent” classical music so that it’s clear that this music is for all people.
As both an artist and arts administrator, how do you think we can make classical music relevant for people? Is there something you’ve seen that you are interested in testing?
From my perspective, based on my experience, I believe that it is important to change the perception people have of classical music: that it is hard to access, boring, or meant only for certain audiences. I think it is essential to encourage musicians and organizations to rethink how they engage with the public, so that concerts go beyond performance and become spaces for dialogue. It’s important for musicians to connect with audiences in an educational and human way, helping people feel that, rather than a barrier, there is something that invites them to come closer and empathize with what they hear. For example, concerts where musicians share stories about the pieces or their creative process work very well. In the case of an orchestra, rather than limiting the idea to an educational concert, the conductor could be invited to engage in a pre- or post-concert talk with soloists, conductors, or composers. This way, the concert can maintain a “traditional” format while also becoming more participatory and intimate.
I also believe that music education from an early age is key to keeping classical music relevant in the long term. Creating projects that bring children and young people closer to music from an early stage is essential.
Finally, collaborations are crucial. Orchestras and chamber ensembles should open themselves to new ideas; performing not only works by past composers but also by contemporary ones, and collaborating with other art forms such as dance, theater, or visual arts. Today, audiences are looking for experiences rather than just events, and that shift challenges us to rethink how we design and present classical music.
Regarding things I’d like to test, many of the organizations I visited during the masters program are already putting these concepts into practice. Most of them have educational projects, offer diverse programming throughout the season, and are clearly aware of the importance of creating meaningful experiences. It is also worth mentioning that, although many organizations are already implementing these kinds of initiatives, the cultural world remains a constant experiment (trying new things, seeing what works, documenting it, and replicating it). It’s important to understand that these processes take time; results can’t be expected overnight, because all of this is part of the long-term work of audience development: a patient, ongoing effort.
At Cubo, for instance, we always try to make chamber music concerts more than just performances. We aim to create a kind of informal gathering where people can learn about the works and engage in conversation with the musicians. We also develop educational programs for children and young people in our community.
However, since Cubo is a small space, it naturally allows for more intimate concerts and shortens the distance between the audience and the musicians. In that sense, we might have it a bit easier; though the challenge of audience engagement and education remains. The question we constantly ask ourselves is, ‘How can we be so engaging that we inspire people to come to the concerts?’
At the end of a concert at Cubo. Photo credit: Ricardo Pineda Rendón
What’s next for Cubo and for you? You’re living in Quebec now. How is the project moving forward with you being so far away?
Cubo has a wonderful team. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to complete the master’s program with such peace of mind. Cubo still has a long way to go. We’ve grown a lot, and now we’re organizing key processes such as data collection, budget planning, and open calls to diversify our sources of income and strengthen our funding; both to sustain the projects we already have and to develop new ones.
As I mentioned before, Cubo’s team truly understands the territory where we work. During my absence, they have not only maintained what we’ve built but have also helped it grow.
Right now, my role focuses more on improving the areas in which we are still developing and advising the team on aspects that, thanks to my experience in the master’s program, I can now identify more clearly. I would say that Cubo has a very promising outlook, and the team is, without question, its greatest strength.
As for me, I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll stay in Canada or return to Colombia. However, for now, I’m able to work perfectly well from a distance. So, while I decide where I’ll be based, I’ll continue contributing as much as I can to Cubo’s growth and to strengthening its mission.
*Adelaida Oesch Jaramillo’s headshot credit: Ricardo Pineda Rendón.