Biography
Estrella Cabildo is a Mexican composer from San Rafael, Veracruz, whose music has been performed by prominent orchestras and ensembles in Mexico and abroad, including Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra, Solistas de Bellas Artes, CEPROMUSIC, and the Camerata de Coahuila, among others. Among her recent distinctions are her selection for the EarShot Readings of the American Composers Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2024), where she worked under the mentorship of Jimmy López; her participation in the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez (2024 and 2025); the France Summer Festival YXIE (2024); the Cátedra Extraordinaria Arturo Márquez de Composición Musical(2023); and the Programa Permanente de Fortalecimiento a Jóvenes Compositores of CEPROMUSIC (2024). She has also received PECDA grants in Puebla (2019 and 2021) and Veracruz (2024–2025), as well as commissions from Solistas de Bellas Artes (2026), the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra (2026), and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes for the Festival Internacional Cervantino (2025).
Cabildo is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music with a specialization in Composition at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), where she studies with Gabriela Ortiz and Francisco Cortés. She holds a Master’s degree in Music with a specialization in Composition, awarded with highest honors, from the Universidad Veracruzana (2024), where she studied with Emil Awad Abed, and a Bachelor’s degree in Composition from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (2021), under the guidance of Gonzalo Macías and Agustín Calabrese. Both the Master’s program in Music at Universidad Veracruzana and the graduate program in Music at UNAM belong to Mexico’s National System of Graduate Programs (SNP).
Her music is marked by a strong engagement with orchestral color, expressive intensity, and symbolic imagination, often shaped by poetic and cultural resonances that serve as the foundation of her creative work.