Mireya Arboleda

Mireya Arboleda
Born	Maria Mireya Arboleda Cadavid 1928 Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Died	February 21, 2021 (aged 92) Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Cause of death	Alzheimer's disease Complications from COVID-19
Occupation	Classical pianist
Spouse	Flavio Cruz Dominguez
Children	2

Maria Mireya Arboleda Cadavid (1928 – February 21, 2021) was a Colombian classical pianist.

Early career and education

Maria Mireya Arboleda Cadavid was born in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia in 1928 to Fernando Arboleda López, the mayor of Palmira and Rosa Cadavid Medina along with five other sisters, Esmeralda, Pubenza, Fabiola, Violeta, and Soffy. Esmeralda became the first female Senator in Colombian history. Arboleda began studying music when she was 6 years old at the Antonio María Valencia de Cali Conservatory. There, she received her diploma in Higher Studies. She went on to study at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, a very prestigious music school. At the conservatory, Arboleda received her Title in Music and Artistic Diploma in 1957 under the tutelage of Hungarian pianist Miklos Schwalb. Also in 1957, Arboleda participated in the International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro which inspired her to move to Paris and earn a Masters of Piano Studies at the Conservatoire de Paris, another very prestigious music school. At the conservatory, Arboleda became the protegé of critcally acclaimed pianists such as French musician Nadia Boulanger and French-Lithuanian musician Vlado Perlemuter.

Career

As a concert pianist, Arboleda performed recitals and concerts in famous international venues such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, The Town Hall in New York City, the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas, and the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. She also performed many times in her home-country of Colombia such as concerts at the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá, and the León de Greiff Library in Medellín. Arboleda later became a head music professor at the National University of Colombia. She devoted around 30 years of her life to teaching music which was one of her great passions.

Personal life

Arboleda was married to Flavio Cruz Dominguez until his death. They had two children, Santiago and Jose Antonio. Through her sister Violeta, Arboleda was the sister-in-law of American periodontist Irving Glickman and was cousins with former Mayor of Cali Norman Maurice Armitage. In the 2000s, Arboleda was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In 2021, she was diagnosed with COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 21, 2021, Arboleda died at age 92. She had recovered from COVID-19 before her death but was still experiencing symptoms of the virus while also battling Alzheimer's.