María Cecilia Villanueva was born in 1964 in La Plata, Argentina. She studied composition with Mariano Etkin at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, where she currently works as teacher in composition and researcher in musical analysis focused on twentieth-century music. She is considered one of the most notable figures of her generation, successfully mixing research and composition.

Villanueva’s music is a testimony to her esthetic independence. She distinguishes herself from her colleagues by the originality of her technical approaches and her rendering of very personal ideas. The expressive density of Villanueva’s music develops around a complex elaboration of materials, which, in some cases, coexist with elements of extreme simplicity. Her music has been performed in many of the main festivals and new music cycles of Europe, the United States, and Latin America. She has also received recognition for her work on numerous occasions. She was awarded the German Forum Junger Komponisten 1989 (WDR) prize in Köln, and won the Elizabeth Schneider prize in 2001 in Freiburg, as well as the Premio de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2003. She has been the recipient of several prestigious German composer residences at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (1994–95), the Künstlerhof Schreyahn (1996) and the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen (2003).