Maximiliano Larrea is a nationally certified classical guitarist from Rosario, Argentina. Currently he lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he works as a tango and folklore performer, arranger, composer and educator.

After completing a degree in classical guitar and music education in Rosario, Larrea moved to Buenos Aires to specialize in tango and Argentine folk music at the most Manuel de Falla Conservatory of Popular Music. In Buenos Aires, he studied under renowned folk and tango guitarist Juan Falú, and trained in tango arranging and composition from Diego Schissi, Nicolas Ledesma, and Gabriel Senanes.

In Argentina, he has participated in the most important tango and folk music festivals, including the World Tango Festival and Championships, and the Pre-Cosquín Festival where he was recognized as a competition finalist. In Fall 2022, he was flown to Argentina to participate in the renowned World Guitar Festival, directed by legendary folklore guitarist Juan Falú.

While living in Buenos Aires, Larrea directed and performed with multiple tango groups in Buenos Aires and recorded on numerous tango albums. Internationally, he has toured with tango bands in Europe, North America, and East Asia.

In the U.S., Larrea has led tango and folklore groups, worked with university tango ensembles and tango summer camps, and developed his career as a solo artist. In Maine, he spent a year studying jazz and writing arrangements for the Colby College tango music ensemble. In Indiana he directed two tango projects, Duo Larrea-Minetti (piano-guitar duet) and Tamango (tango quintet).

In 2018 Larrea moved to San Francisco to perform tango. While in the Bay Area he formed and directed multiple projects including the Maxi Larrea Trio (a guitar, bandoneon, piano tango trio with Charles Gorczynskiy on bandoneon and Sumi Lee on piano), and Duo Telar (a guitar/voice jazz/tango duet with singer Teresa Tam). He also performed with the Mariano Barreiro Quartet, and multiple guest artists visiting from Argentina including the renowned bandoneonist Ramiro Boero, and Grammy winning pianist Lisandro Baum. His first album of original compositions for solo guitar, Donde Termina el Río/Where the River Ends, was released in 2020.

Larrea has received multiple grants to support his work. In 2023, he was the recipient of a prestigious Master Artist Award from the Southwest Folklife Alliance in recognition of his expertise in tango guitar. He has also received a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to produce a book of sheet music arrangements to teach tango guitar, to be released in 2024.

When not composing, arranging, or performing, Larrea runs a home and online guitar studio where he teaches popular guitar styles to local, national and international students (in person and via zoom) of all ages and skill levels. As an educator, Maximiliano has years of experience teaching private lessons and working and developing music curricula in public K-8 schools in Buenos Aires and Rosario, Argentina. In the United States, he has worked at Montessori schools in Maine and Indiana where he developed an innovative interdisciplinary Spanish and Music education program based around his own compositions and arrangements of Latin American popular and folk songs. 

Since arriving in Tucson he has been working with his wife (Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Arizona) to design a new project to promote intergenerational community connections through Latin American popular music in Tucson.