GTMF’s partnerships deepen through her work – JH News & Guide

Ashley Hernandez-Salinas, Community Engagement Manager at the Grand Teton Music Festival, was featured in the Jackson Hole News&Guide for her work leading GTMF’s community engagement programming.

Ashley Hernandez-Salinas says she did not grow up in a particularly musical family.

“My family always loved music,” the 27-year-old Georgia native said. “My parents are Mexican and they loved mariachi and that tradition. So I grew up listening to music, but no one played.”

Since 2024, however, she has found herself near the center of a huge musical family as the Grand Teton Music Festival’s community engagement manager.

Hernandez-Salinas is largely responsible for planning and executing the festival’s 120-plus free community programs through July and August — “Musical Adventures” for families with preschoolers, “On the Road” chamber music performances at various spots around the Tetons, day camps with Teton Music School and MusicLand, to name a few — as well as residencies, collaborations and guest artist visits in regional public and private schools.

“Right now, we have violinist Jessica Mathaes and Judith Galecki, who plays cello, working with the high school orchestra,” she said last week.

Earlier this month, trumpeter Jennifer Marotta and clarinetist Marci Gurnow met with the high school band, and this past fall four other GTMF orchestra members spent two weeks with Jackson Hole High School music students.

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