CABEZAS ESPINOZA, Estela

Estela Cabezas Espinoza was a Chilean pianist, composer and music educator. She was born in Temuco on 28 September 1921 and began studying piano at a very early age, winning a Chopin competition when she was seven. She later moved to Santiago, where she studied piano with Rosita Renard and composition with Pedro Humberto Allende, René Amengual, Juan Orrego Salas, Federico Heinlein and others.

Cabezas wrote works for piano, voice and piano, choir, cello and piano, violin and piano, and ballet. Her piano works include Tres estudios melódicos para piano, Escenas infantiles and Tarantella. She is especially remembered for creating Música en Colores, an innovative method for teaching music to children through colours, symbols and play. The method was presented internationally, including in the United States and Europe, and became her most important pedagogical legacy. In 2002 she received the Medalla de la Música for the book Música en Colores, and in 2004 she was invited to join the Foro Latinoamericano de Educación Musical. She died in Viña del Mar in 2011.