María Dolores Pradera was born in Madrid on August 29th 1924. During her childhood she travelled frequently to Chile, where her father owned different businesses. During the forties, she took up cinema as an extra activity. After only a short time, she starred in film dramas, such as “Altar Mayor” and “Inés de Castro”. At the same time she made her debut at the Teatro de la Comedia with works by Jardiel Poncela. After taking part in the “Cabalgata fin de semana” by Bobby Deglané (Radio Madrid), she perfomed for the first time as a singer at the Boîte Alazan on Paseo de la Castellana.

She has starred in different plays for the theatre, such as: Don Juan Tenorio, Soledad de Unamuno o El jardín de los cerezos (The Cherry Orchard), amongst other works performed in Spanish theatres and María Guerrero (Madrid) in addition to other theatres in a range of cities throughout Spain, France and Mexico.

After playing the part of Mariana Pinedaby Federico García Lorcaat the Teatro Marquina, she stepped back from theatre to concentrate on her singing career.

She returned to the Teatro Lara to act in Candida by George Bernard Shaw. She put vocals and music to the poems of Fernando Pessoa at the 25th Festival de Teatro in Merida.

She received the Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel La Católica “for her contribution towards the strengthening of relationships between Spanish speaking countries”. She was also awarded the Premio Nacional de Teatro, the Medalla de Bellas Artes, the Premio Lara, the Medalla de Oro of Madrid for Artistic Merit and the Medalla al Mérito Cultural y Artístico of the Universidad Complutense.

She has recorded more than forty albums with an approximate total of five hundred songs. She combines lyrical art with theatrical art, although in recent years she has concentrated more on singing.

According to the writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán: “María Dolores Pradera has managed to create the beauty necessary for songs that are as much popular songs as they are literary songs, precisely because they reach the listener by using literature connected with hope in relation to memory, life and death.”

At the X edition of the Festival Mil.lenni, Maria Dolores Pradera will once again set foot on the stage of the Palau de la Música, giving voice to her classics – always fresh in listeners’ minds – at a special concert in Barcelona.