Gabriel Bolaños is fully Nicaraguan, though his parents fled the Sandinista revolution in 1979 with three kids and two suitcases. Growing up abroad, moving every few years, Nicaragua remained the one constant—summers with family, guitar lessons with folk guitarist Julio Vásquez, marimba training. But Bolaños resists incorporating those traditions into his notated work. He learned early that folk music's vitality lives in embellishment and performance practice, not the bare-bones transcription on the page. To him, presenting Latin American folk music in concert halls with polished instruments and performers disconnected from its history feels disrespectful—like putting something living in a cage. Even when expectations arise, he holds back, only hinting at those roots sparingly, as hidden gestures rather than central features.

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