Maria Noel Luzardo

A student of Maestro Hugo Pierre, María Noel Luzardo Fornella was the first graduate from the Saxophone Chair at the “Carlos López Buchardo” National Conservatory of Music (Argentina),in 1992 where she held the Saxophone Chair after her professor’s retirement.

She was awarded several prices, such as the ¨Art Biennial Competition¨, ¨Argentina Music Competition¨, and the ¨Buenos Aires First International Music Competition¨.Since 1994 she has played solo alto saxophone at the ¨Buenos Aires City Symphony Band¨ and is currently teaching saxophone at the “Manuel de Falla” Advanced Conservatory of Music (Buenos Aires.)

Her recording works for saxophone and piano, saxophone quartet as well as reed quintet mainly focus on music by argentine composers, including pieces by renowned Astor Piazzolla and Mauricio Kagel.

She has extensively played as a soloist with the Teatro Colón Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra (Argentina) and many other important argentine orchestras, as well as Latin American orchestras like the S.O.D.R.E Orchestra (Uruguay), the Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra, etc. She also toured Brazil and France with the ¨Teatro Colón Chamber Orchestra¨, and is frequently called for symphonic repertoire at the Colón Theatre

In 2009 the prestigious Konex Foundation bestowed the ¨Merit Diploma¨ upon her – a distinction bestowed in Argentina once every ten years in the field of Classical Music.María Noel was a member of the Jury in several important Saxophone Competitions in Latin America.

Throughout the years she gave first performances of a large amount of works for different ensembles, many of which were dedicated to her.

She is currently a member of the “4MIL” Saxophone Quartet, the “CLAM” itinerant quartet (Cuarteto Latinoamericano de Mujeres Saxofonistas) –mainly working on the Latin American repertoire-, and the “TORRE 7” woodwind quintet. She has been invited to join the jury of the 8th International Adolph Sax Competition in 2023.