Biography

Praised for her “soulful bandoneón” (Washington Classical Review), Heyni Solera is a sought after bandoneonist based in Washington, DC. Heyni has enjoyed a career in the US and abroad performing in Argentina, Canada and Australia and collaborating with prominent tango artists such as Ramiro Boero, Julian Peralta, Pablo Jaurena, Santiago Segret, Emiliano Messiez, Pedro Giraudo and many more. In 2019, Heyni was a member of the Argentine tango orchestra schools La Orquesta de Tango de la Una and the Conservatorio Superior de “Manuel de Falla”, where she had the opportunity to perform in the prestigious Centro Cultural Kirchner.

Heyni is part of the cello/bandoneon duo, Arco & Aire, with cellist Maxfield Wollam-Fisher. Their arrangement of “La Bordona” won Best Latin Song for the 2022 Wammie awards, which can be found in their EP Overture. Their first full album of new contemporary tango music, Una Noche Entre Sueños, was released July of 2024. Heyni is also the other half of the Avalos-Solera Bandoneon Duo. Their album, Bach en Bandoneon, has been presented in prestigious venues throughout the United States and Argentina, such as the National Cathedral, St. Paul’s Chapel in Columbia University, and the Universidad Nacional de las Artes. Their latest album, Intersecciones, was released in July 2026. It contains their own arrangements of classic tangos and Argentine zambas. Heyni is one of the bandoneonists for the Latin-Grammy nominated PanAmerican Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble regularly performs at the Argentine Embassy of Washington, DC, the Barns at the Wolf Trap, and the Kennedy Center. Heyni’s newest project is as the musical director for the Tango Mercurio Ensemble, which focuses on providing live tango dance music to the Washington, DC community.

As a scholar, Heyni received her Masters of Music in Ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has developed the lectures A GPS for Tango Listening: What Makes Tango a Tango? and Today’s Woman in Tango: Carving Out Spaces amongst others. These lectures have been extensively presented throughout the United States and Canada for public audiences and academics alike. Heyni holds a Masters of Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and her compositions have been premiered and presented at the CU Tango Festival, and by the Grammy-Nominated Palaver Strings, with whom she toured as a soloist in 2025.

Past projects include playing in the orchestra of the highly praised IN Series production of Le Cabaret de Carmen at Source Theatre in Washington, D.C. and at Baltimore Theatre Project in Baltimore, Maryland. She creates various content such as “Today’s Tango with Heyni”, a mini-series that features today’s contemporary tango musicians throughout the world, and “Discovering Troilo,” a mini-series that delves into the iconic style of Anibal Troilo’s tango orchestra. She also curates the concert series, “The Art of the Bandoneon,” where she features some of the world’s best bandoneonists.