Horacio Salinas

Horacio Salinas serves as multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music director for the Andes folk ensemble Inti Illimani, carrying the indigenous traditions of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina onto global platforms. Initially enrolled as a chemical engineering student at Santiago Technical University during the mid-1960s, he shifted his focus to music upon encountering fellow students with similar interests who launched Inti Illimani in August 1967. From the moment he entered the ensemble in October 1967, Salinas has guided its artistic development. While the group was performing across Europe, his passport along with those of his bandmates was withdrawn in the wake of the coup that overthrew Chilean president Salvador Allende. He and the other members then established their base in Rome, Italy, for the following fourteen years, maintaining an extensive international touring schedule. After coming back to Chile for a widely celebrated concert in 1998, Salinas and Inti Illimani resettled permanently in their homeland in 1990.