Mario Rodriguez Arenas was born in Buenos Aires on September 30, 1879. He was the son of Manuel Rodriguez and Martina Arenas. He began to study the guitar on June 15, 1903 under the direction of Angel del Valle. This study lasted for 2 years. At that point Mario began to study harmony with Enrique Morera as well as perfection studies. In 1907 he began to dedicated himself to teaching. He soon had a distinguished name for himself as well as many wealthy students from the upper classes of the porteño society.
Ricardo Muñoz recounts a story in his biography of Mario Rodriguez Arenas in the magazine “Revista de la Guitarra” issue no. 13 of September 1945. Mario told him that in 1908 when Domingo Prat had brought the first editions of Francisco Tarrega to Buenos Aires, the preludes, tremolo pieces, Capricho Arabe, etc. sold out in just 8 days at the Casa Nuñez music store. It was well over a month before the guitar aficionados of Buenos Aires had another opportunity to purchase these works again.
He began publishing works through Francisco Nuñez about 1909. The majority of these pieces were Argentine folk pieces and many of these were so popular that they sold out & had to have subsequent editions reprinted. These pieces are from 1909-1925.
In 1913 Mario, along with Antonio Sinopoli founded the Academia de Guitarra “Tarrega”. The year after, Hilarion Leloup, a student of Francisco Tarrega, arrived and took over the directorship from Mario & Antonio. Sometime in 1917 Mario suffered a cramp to his right hand which curtailed his stage performances. His teaching activities kept him busy besides the weekly transcriptions that he produced.
By 1930 Mario Rodriguez Arenas had published over 220 pieces. Besides the Argentine folk pieces there were Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg & Handel pieces, and method books with the works of Sor, Aguado, Coste, Cano and Tarrega. His method books called “La Escuela de la Guitarra” were dedicated to his daughter Elba, who became a distinguished guitarist under his direction.
Mario died in 1949.
This biography is drawn three sources: from Ricardo Munoz’s “Historia de la Guitarra” published in 1930, an article in the “Revista de la Guitarra” issue no. 13 of September 1945 & Domingo Prat’s “Diccionario de Guitarristas” published by Romero & Fernandez in 1934.
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