CABALLERO, Maria Laura

María Laura Caballero is an Argentine charango player, composer, arranger, singer and teacher. She was born in General Pico, La Pampa, and grew up in Pehuajó, Buenos Aires Province, where she received her early musical training. She studied guitar, ethnomusicology, tango and Argentine folk music, specialising in charango at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Manuel de Falla” in Buenos Aires. She later completed a Master’s degree in Musical Creation, New Technologies and Traditional Arts at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero.

Her work is closely connected with Argentine folk-rooted music, the charango and ronroco, and she is also active in contemporary and electroacoustic music. As a performer and composer, she has developed repertoire for solo charango and ronroco, vocal-instrumental works, arrangements and original compositions inspired by Argentine regional rhythms such as carnavalito, huayno, huella, gato, chacarera, cueca, bailecito, candombe, milonga and tango. She has released the albums Charango, dímelo tú and Desde la misma huella, and has performed as a soloist and with different ensembles. She has also been a member of the Orquesta Argentina de Charangos and the Orquesta de Instrumentos Autóctonos y Nuevas Tecnologías of UNTREF. Her work El Viaje del Alma was selected for performance in Chile and had previously received recognition from CAMU in the Contemporary Music category.