A singing community
Our Story
In April 2023, Lynn Mendoza-Khan conducted the PPS Latinx Community Choir in the world premiere of El Agua de Mi Ser (The Water of My Being). Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos, the singer, songwriter and frontwoman of the Portland band Y La Bamba, wrote the piece. The choir brought Latino/a/x/e student singers together with adult singers, and it showed how many people in Portland were looking for a place to sing music from their own culture.
In February 2025, Lynn started the Latinx Choral Project with 20 singers. By that June, the choir had grown to more than 60. Going into Fall 2026 with over 100 registered singers. LCP became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in February 2026. Today it has more than 100 singers, an auditioned chamber choir and a youth choir at McDaniel High School.
Nuestra Historia
En abril de 2023, Lynn Mendoza-Khan dirigió el PPS Latinx Community Choir en el estreno mundial de El Agua de Mi Ser. Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos, cantante, compositora y líder de la banda de Portland Y La Bamba, escribió la obra. El coro reunió a estudiantes latinos, latinas, latinx y latines con cantantes adultos, y demostró cuántas personas en Portland buscaban un lugar para cantar música de su propia cultura.
En febrero de 2025, Lynn fundó el Latinx Choral Project con 20 cantantes. Para junio de ese año, el coro ya tenía más de 60. LCP se convirtió en una organización sin fines de lucro 501(c)(3) en febrero de 2026. Hoy tiene más de 100 cantantes, un coro de cámara con audición y un coro juvenil en McDaniel High School.
About Maestra
Maestra
Lynn Mendoza-Khan
Maestra Lynn Mendoza-Khan is the founder, executive director and artistic director of the Latinx Choral Project (LCP) in Portland, Oregon. She is a singer, conductor, composer, arranger and music teacher with more than 20 years of experience.
Lynn was born in Healdsburg, California, and grew up and studied in the Central Valley and the Bay Area. She then built her music career in San Diego for more than 20 years. Trained in classical voice and piano, she has sung on opera stages in the U.S. and abroad, conducted musicals from the orchestra pit, directed church, community and children’s choirs, and sung with professional ensembles. Her work also spans mariachi, barbershop, musical theater and folk music. She has worked in arts organizations big and small, onstage and in the office, and she brings all of it, the good and the bad, into how LCP is being built.
Lynn moved to Portland in 2018. In February 2025, she started LCP with 20 singers, and the choir grew to more than 100 in about a year and a half. Students know her for being direct and caring at the same time. She believes anyone can learn to read music the way they learn a language, through practice over time, and she teaches that way.
Lynn doesn’t lead LCP alone. She builds it with its singers and an all-singer board. Her vision goes beyond concerts. She wants LCP to grow Latine leaders and create real jobs, such as bookkeepers, marketers, office staff and legal support, so local Latine talent can build careers in the arts.
Organizational Structure
How We Work Together
After years in arts administration and in many kinds of arts organizations, Maestra Lynn saw that some things needed to change for artists to thrive. With help from our board and input from our singers, we built a structure that’s working well for us: shared leadership.
Everyone answers to someone, but no one holds more power than anyone else. Our singers lead in small teams we call casitas, which together make up our barrio. Each casita handles one part of our work, such as welcoming members, building partnerships, fundraising and marketing. We talk things through until everyone is on board. When someone raises a concern, we see it as a chance to understand the issue better, not as a challenge. We take our time building our policies together, because this is shared work.
Cómo Trabajamos Juntos
Después de muchos años en la administración de las artes y en distintos tipos de organizaciones artísticas, Maestra Lynn vio que había cosas que debían cambiar para que los artistas pudieran prosperar. Con la ayuda de nuestra junta directiva y las ideas de nuestros cantantes, creamos una estructura que nos está funcionando muy bien: el liderazgo compartido.
Todos rendimos cuentas a alguien, pero nadie tiene más poder que los demás. Nuestros cantantes lideran en pequeños equipos que llamamos casitas, y juntas forman nuestro barrio. Cada casita se encarga de una parte de nuestro trabajo, como dar la bienvenida a nuevos miembros, crear alianzas, recaudar fondos y hacer mercadeo. Conversamos hasta que todos estemos de acuerdo. Cuando alguien expresa una preocupación, la vemos como una oportunidad para entender mejor el tema, no como un desafío. Nos tomamos el tiempo para crear nuestras políticas juntos, porque es un trabajo compartido.
