CARRILO, Maria Ines Gomez

María Inés Gómez Carrillo was an Argentine pianist, composer and music educator, born in Santiago del Estero on 2 April 1918. She came from a distinguished musical family: her father was the composer and musicologist Manuel Gómez Carrillo, while her mother, María Inés Landeta César, was a pianist. She began studying music with her parents and gave her first public concerts at the age of six. At eight, she performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach at the Sociedad Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires.

Gómez Carrillo studied piano with Rafael González and attended the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, where she studied with composer Athos Palma. She graduated in piano and composition at the age of fifteen. In 1940, she received a scholarship from Argentina’s National Commission of Culture to continue her studies in the United States. In New York, she studied piano with Eduard Steuermann and composition with Jerzy Fitelberg, later continuing her pianistic training with Olga Samaroff and Egon Petri.

In 1942, after hearing her perform, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Gómez Carrillo to give a concert at the White House and supported the continuation of her studies in the United States. She made her Town Hall debut in New York in 1943 and first appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1946. Her subsequent international career included performances throughout the Americas and Europe, as well as appearances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall in London. She performed with orchestras conducted by figures including Sergiu Celibidache, Bernard Haitink and Jascha Horenstein.

Although best known as a pianist, Gómez Carrillo composed a small but significant group of works between 1937 and 1940. Her music was strongly influenced by the melodies and rhythms of northern Argentina. Her compositions include the String Quartet in F major, Cunita blanca for voice and piano, Chascañahuí munanquita, T’hei de dejar, Pupilas que me miraron, Sol de mi tierra for piano and Estudio criollo. She later taught piano at the Juan José Castro Provincial Conservatory and the Carlos López Buchardo National Conservatory, contributing to the education of several generations of Argentine pianists. She died in Buenos Aires on 22 June 2014.