Maria Fernanda Gonzalez is a Barquisimeto-based multi-instrumentalist and journalist. After years of studying cuatro, mandolin and violin, Maria decided to take up the bandola llanera, an obscure Venezuelan instrument with well-known few female performers. Her blazing and virtuosic performances on the bandola llanera have earned her prestigious slots on numerous festivals including Festival of Música llanera the Silbón (Venezuela), the festival Girara de Oro (Colombia), the 32nd Music Office Curitiba (Brazil), The International Jazz Festival Barquisimeto (Venezuela) and Folklorico Summer Festivals (Portugal and Spain). She currently teaches master classes on the bandola llanera and is working on codifying and writing a new universal teaching method for the instrument. Maria is a member of the band LADAMA, along with three other OneBeat 2014 alumni.
In 2020, Maria received a OneBeat Accelerator grant for her project LAFEMIC: A Latin Female Music Industry Conference, bringing together women in the music industry from all over Latin America for an online conference to exchange ideas and strategies for navigating the music business, in order to forge stronger connections between female industry leaders. Through performance and education, she hopes to help the bandola llanera achieve worldwide recognition, “on the scale of the venezuelan cuatro and the joropo llanero.”