Brought together by their mutual love of Spanish and Latin American music from many centuries, critically acclaimed musicians Sharon Wayne and Martha Rodríguez-Salazar joined forces in 2018 to create Ave Fénix Duo. Each active for several decades as chamber musicians, recording artists, and teachers, both women have held positions at San Francisco’s leading music institutions, including the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Conservatory, San Francisco Classical Guitar Society, and SF Community Music Center. They bring you a program of life and love, death and rebirth, featuring works for flute, voice, and guitar by Falla, Lorca, Piazzolla, Villa-lobos, and others. 

Singer, flutist, conductor and producer Martha Rodríguez-Salazar has been bringing Latin American folk, classical and contemporary music to the Bay Area for more than 17 years. For her outstanding leadership in promoting and developing Mexican music and culture in the Bay Area Martha was recognized as a "Luminary" in 2011 by the Mexican Consulate in SF and as "Excelencia Latina" by LAM and Mundo Fox in 2013.

A native of Mexico City, Martha was classically-trained in both Mexico and Mills College as a concert flutist and opera singer. She has been a faculty member of the Community Music Center since 2000, where she teaches voice, flute, piano, Coro de Cámara, Latin Vocal Workshop, conducts several older adult choirs, and is part of the San Francisco Unified School District Mariachi Program.

She currently performs with the Bernal Hill Players and the Latin folk duo Chile y Limón, as well as curating the “Día de los Muertos” event at the San Francisco Symphony. Martha is delighted to have found a wonderful musical partner in Sharon. 

Classical Guitarist Sharon Wayne has been an active teacher, performer, and recording artist, working for nearly 30 years in the Bay Area and New England. 

Called “one of the most appealing new guitarists around”, with “bewitching vitality”(San Jose Mercury News) and “superbly executed style” (Charleston Post and Courier), Sharon has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad as a soloist and chamber musician. A founding member of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, she helped generate new repertoire for guitar, commissioning works by Carlo Domeniconi, Eitan Steinberg, and others. Sharon appears on six CD's, including In the Midst of Winds(M.A. Recordings, Tokyo); Black Opals(SFGQ2001); and her solo CD From the Heart(Joplin and Sweeney) which features works by living composers. While living in New England, she performed as a member of crossover group The Back Bay Trio. 

 She has served on the faculties of San Francisco Conservatory of Music‘s Preparatory Division, Santa Clara University, and CSMA in Mountain View, and was Artistic Director of both San Francisco Classical Guitar Society and Boston Classical Guitar Society. After a hiatus from the guitar, during which time she picked up the cello and banjo and started singing in Martha’s chamber choir, Sharon is overjoyed to return to her first instrument with new inspiration, and is feeling a bit like the Ave Fénix!