The sheet music collector: Playing pieces from the early 20th century preserved by Indigenous people

"A collector, yes, but not of wild fruits. A collector of musical scores. At 26, fresh out of university, in 2004 she accepted the position of director of the San Ignacio de Moxos School of Music, a decision that transformed her life and, above all, the lives of the Moxos people, one of the Indigenous nations recognized by the Plurinational State of Bolivia."

"Upon arriving at the school, which had been founded by a nun of the Ursuline order, she understood that she could not limit her work to teaching folk and world music, but rather that she had to work on the long tradition of native music that had taken root in the region for centuries. We weren't landing like aliens in a place devoid of culture; rather, there was a strong cultural and musical foundation."

"That was precisely the tool we needed to begin building a musical foundation, Maldonado recalls. Soon, she discovered neighborhood festivals and the songs played there. And she stumbled upon a treasure she knew little about at the time: a musical archive containing several thousand scores. Then, we decided to finish the work ourselves, and we found much more than we had imagined, because we quadrupled the archive, she says."

Raquel Maldonado trained as a pianist, conductor, and classical composer in La Paz but graduated as a music collector in San Ignacio de Moxos. At 26 she became director of the San Ignacio de Moxos School of Music, shifting focus from folk and world music to researching centuries-old native musical traditions. She discovered neighborhood festivals, songs, and a musical archive of several thousand scores and then expanded and quadrupled the archive through intensive field research. The school originated with an Ursuline nun. Her work rebuilt a musical foundation for dispersed communities across Gran Moxos and strengthened Moxo cultural continuity.

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