About
Claudia Martínez is a guitarist, composer, arranger, and educator from Quito, Ecuador. She began her musical journey studying piano as a child before choosing the guitar as her primary instrument, inspired by classic rock, blues, and jazz. Over time, Brazilian music and contemporary classical composition became major influences in her artistic voice.
Claudia earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the College of Music (CoM) at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador’s only Berklee College of Music Global Partner. After several years teaching at the university level, she received a scholarship to attend the prestigious Jamey Aebersold Jazz Study Program at the University of Louisville, where she completed master’s degrees in Composition and Arrangement and Jazz Guitar Performance under the mentorship of acclaimed composer John LaBarbera and guitarist Craig Wagner.
In 2026, Claudia toured several Brazilian states to promote her acclaimed album Fotos Mentales after receiving the prestigious IBERMÚSICAS Internationalization Award. She has performed at the USFQ International Jazz Festival and the UCSG Jazz Festival, with an upcoming appearance at the Ecuador Jazz International Festival. Two compositions from Fotos Mentales were selected as finalists for Best Instrumental Composition at the 2026 InterContinental Music Awards. She is currently working on her fourth studio album, Serendipia.
Her Work
2016Transformación & Renacimiento
In 2016, her first solo album as The Claudia Martínez Jazz Project was released. The album Transformación y renacimiento features Claudia’s work as a composer, arranger and guitarist. This work exposes a combination of jazz elements with contemporary academic music, in a big ensemble format. This first album was produced and recorded in Quito with the collaboration of high level local and foreign musicians.2020 Ojos abiertos / Ojos cerrados
In 2020, The Claudia Martínez Jazz Project released Ojos abiertos / Ojos cerrados, her second album. This work keeps the combination of jazz with contemporary academic elements and adds elements of Brazilian and Ecuadorian music. This last effort was produced and recorded in São Paulo, Brazil, under the musical direction of saxophonist, composer and producer Thomaz Souza. Highly regarded musicians collaborate on this project: Alexandre Vianna (piano), Vanessa Ferreira (upright bass), Ivan Castro (drums), Reynaldo Izeppi (trumpet), Thomas Souza (soprano sax), Igor Riberti (tenor sax) and Fabio Oliva (trombone). Some of these collaborators are member or renowned bands like Hermeto Pascoal’s Big Band.2025Mental Photos / Fotos Mentales
Moments, images that occurred far from an external camera, but were captured by the lens and memory of an internal one. My mother's smile and hug. Her scent, the sound of her typewriter. My father's singing, his whistling and his guitar; his jaw. Far away forma home, other faces, a smile, a hug, a dance. A sea, bright eyes, a mirror, a radiant sun, two twin mountains, a piano. The goodbye and the thank you. A blown kiss, a given kiss, and with all of this, the affections that accompany the moments. It's those affections, those that become unnamable, inexplicable, that move through the music of this work.
Music...
The thing that moves and organizes her
the most present obsession
the connection with her surroundings
the heaviness and lightness