María Cristina Gómez Rabito

María Cristina Gómez Rabito de González was a 20th-century harpist whose Paraguayan harp music won national and international recognition.[1][2]

Born in Paraguay, Gómez Rabito began playing the harp when she was 6 years old, and started playing professionally at the age of 7, becoming known as "La Princesita del Arpa India" ("The Little Princess of the Indian Harp").[1][2] In 1968, she formed a musical duo with Enrique Samaniego, with whom she recorded the album Arpegios Guaraníes.[2] Also in 1968 she became the first professor of the Arpa Paraguaya at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música de Asunción, now the Instituto Municipal de Arte (IMA).[2][1][3]

In 1969 she joined the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción (OSCA), performing under the batons of the two great directors Don Remberto Giménez and Carlos Villagra.[2] In the same year, she also joined the Orquesta Folclórica Municipal conducted by Maestro César Medina.[2] In 1972 she joined the Cuarteto de Cuerdas del Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano, performing for a long time in the famous "Tren Musical" ("Musical Train") playing venues along the central railroad of Paraguay from Asunción to Encarnación.[2]

Gómez Rabito died at the age of 68 in 2017.[1]