Berta Rojas

Background and education

Known for her expressivity and innate musical talents, Berta Rojas was praised for having “introduced a new dimension in the emotional reaches of the instrument,” according to El Pais newspaper in 1991. Since then she has gone on to build an international career and is currently recognized as one of the top guitarists of the modern era. She was lauded by the Washington Post as a “guitarist extraordinaire” and by Classical Guitar Magazine as “ambassador of the classical guitar.”

She began her first music lessons with guitarist Emiliano Aiub Riveros. She then studied guitar briefly with Carlos Vazquez, and later initiated her formal education in classical guitar at age 10 under the instruction of Felipe Sosa and Violeta de Mestral. While studying with Sosa and de Mestral, she obtained the title of Senior Professor of Classical Guitar. At the same time, she also studied piano with Rosa Mereles de Lopez and obtained the title of Senior Professor of Piano from Jorge Baez Conservatory.

Rojas moved to Uruguay in 1986 to continue her studies with Uruguayan professor Abel Carlevaro. There she enrolled in the Escuela Universitaria de Musica (Universidad de la Republica), where she obtained a Bachelor of Music in Classical Guitar, studying under guitarist Eduardo Fernandez and Mario Paysee.

In 1996, Rojas was named a Fellow of the Americas by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for her artistic excellence. This recognition helped her acquire the means to continue her formal education in the United States. That same year, she began graduate studies at the Peabody Institute. In 1997 she received a scholarship from the Organization of American States which financed her remaining studies. She received a Master of Music from Peabody Institute under the instruction of Manuel Barrueco. She also studied with Ray Chester.

In 2000, Rojas received her Graduate Performance Diploma, studying with Manuel Barrueco and Julian Gray.

Music career

Berta Rojas has performed in top-notch venues around the world, including Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, the Frederick P. Rose Hall of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, the Southbank Centre in London, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She has performed at the National Concert Hall in Dublin as a soloist with the Irish Radio and Television Orchestra (RTO), and on Belgian National Television with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. She was given the honor of opening for the Summit of the First Ladies of the Americas, where then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was in attendance.

Since 2011, Rojas has toured through 20 countries in the Americas with Cuban saxophonist and 11-time Grammy award winner Paquito D’Rivera on the “In the Footsteps of Mangore” tour. Together, Rojas and D’Rivera recorded and released Dia y Medio (A Day and a Half), an album which earned a nomination for “Best Instrumental Album” in the 13th Latin Grammys in 2012. She has also frequently toured with Brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima.

Berta Rojas maintains a prolific and critically acclaimed discography. Her 1998 album, Intimate Barrios, was included in Gramophone Magazine’s list of “the best recordings you can buy.” Her 2006 release of Cielo Abierto was praised by Soundboard Magazine as “impeccable in every aspect of professionalism—heart-touching musical artistry, interesting repertoire and excellent technical production.” 2009’s Terruno has received excellent reviews by critics internationally. Steve Marsh of Classical Guitar Magazine commended Terruno for exhibiting a “poetic exquisiteness which many another player rarely attains.”

In May, 2015 Berta Rojas received the distinction of "Maestros del Arte", the "Embajadora Ilustre del Arte Musical" distinction by the Paraguayan Senate, and the award of "La Ordena Nacional al Merito Comuneros", by the Chamber of Deputies Paraguay. On May, 18th, she released her latest album "History of Tango", along with the iconic Camerata Bariloche.

Discography