Pablo Rioja is a tenured professor at the Centro Integrado de Enseñanza Musical Federico Moreno Torroba, where he combines his teaching duties with an active concert career.

He has given recitals in numerous venues both in Spain and abroad, including the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid; the Abu Khater Auditorium in Beirut; the Carzou Foundation in Manosque (France); the Le Bois qui Chante Festival in Château d’Oex (Switzerland); Messukeskus in Helsinki (Finland); the Instituto Cervantes centers in Marrakech, Tangier, and Lebanon; and at the Embassies of Spain in Malta, Portugal, Ukraine, Namibia, Gabon, and Nigeria, among others.

He has made live recordings for Radio Nacional de España, Swiss Radio and Television, Moroccan Radio and Television, and Lebanese Television.

He has released three recordings: with the guitar duo L’Encouragement alongside Herminia Navarro; with the violin and guitar duo Animacorde alongside Andrés Ortiz; and with the mandolin and guitar duo Simón–Rioja alongside Mari Carmen Simón. His interest in chamber music has also led him to form other ensembles, such as a voice and guitar duo with soprano Paloma Friedhoff.

Committed to contemporary music, he is frequently invited to perform at contemporary music festivals, where he has premiered works by composers such as García Abril, Tomás Marco, Beatriz Arzamendi, Daniel Casado, Constancio Hernáez, Flores Chaviano, and María José Cordero, among others.

He studied chamber music with Rocío Samper and guitar with Luis Briso de Montiano. In 2000, he completed his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid under the guidance of Miguel Ángel Jiménez, and in 2009 he earned his Master’s degree in Classical Guitar from the University of Extremadura, studying with Maestro Ricardo Gallén

Mari Carmen Simón is one of the leading figures of her generation in the field of plucked string instruments, combining her concert career with her pedagogical work. She has held the Chair of Plucked String Instruments at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Murcia and currently teaches at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Segovia. She is frequently invited as a lecturer at various national and international specialized music courses.

As a soloist, she has performed with Baroque ensembles such as Barrocade (Israel), the Baroque Orchestra of the Royal Chapel of Madrid, and the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra. In the symphonic field, she has collaborated with the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, the Orchestra of the Community of Madrid, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Symphony Orchestra of the Balearic Islands, and the Spanish National Youth Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, she has been a member of various ensembles, including the international mandolin quartet Kerman Mandolin Quartet, alongside Jacob Reuven (Israel), Fabio Gallucci (Italy), and Vincent Beer-Demander (France), with whom she has recorded two CDs and performed extensively worldwide. She also forms the duo SixteenStrings with mandolinist Jacob Reuven and the duo Mandolin & Guitar Simón–Rioja with guitarist Pablo Rioja. She has been invited to perform in the Chamber Music Series of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Choir as part of the Radio Clásica concerts. Her performances have taken her to Spain, France, Estonia, Belgium, Italy, Israel, Germany, Luxembourg, Greece, the Netherlands, and the United States.

She holds a Higher Degree in Plucked String Instruments from the Higher Conservatory of Music of Murcia and a Diplôme Supérieur de Mandoline avec distinction from the Conservatory of Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg). Her main teachers include Caridad Simón, Pedro Chamorro, Juan Carlos Muñoz, MariFe Pavón, Marga Wilden-Hüsguen, and Luis Giménez. She has also studied Early Music with specialist Agostino Cirillo.
Mari Carmen Simón plays a double-top mandolin built by Arik Kerman (Israel, 2013).