Born in Valparaíso in 1984, in 2006, Ernesto Calderón Dondero graduated from the Instituto de Música of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile, with a degree as a Music Teacher.

Following his passion for Folk Music, in 2007, he lived in Scotland and studied accordion with folk musician Sandy Brechin. He continued his accordion studies in 2010 in Chile with Ignacio Hernandez and in 2011 in France with Frederic Deschamps.

In 2016, he specialized in the “Rhythm with Signs” conducting method by studying with his creator, Santiago Vázquez, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He resumed these studies in 2022, also studying percussions and composing.

Ernesto has represented Chile as a performer and composer in the Folk Music Camps Ethno Scotland (2010), Ethno HistEria (Slovenia, 2011), Rila Music Exchange (Bulgaria, 2013), Ethno Croatia (2014), Ethno Flanders (2014), Ethno Germany (2014), and as an Artistic Mentor in TradInEtno (Croatia, 2015), Ethno Flanders (2015), Ethno India (2016), EthnoFonik (France, 2016), Ethno Croatia (2017), Ethno Denmark (2018). He was also the Music Coordinator in the first Ethno Mentors Think-up (Spain 2022) and a Trainer at the Artistic Mentor Training (Greece 2023).

Since 2015, he has been working as the Artistic Director of the International Folk Music Camp “Ethno Chile”, and in 2022, Ernesto joined the team of tutors in the Folk Music Camp “Burwell Bash” (2022), which has been running for around 30 years in Cambridgeshire, UK.

From 2012-2022 he worked as a composer and conductor with the Ensamble Transatlántico de Folk Chileno, a folk orchestra dedicated to composing and performing music based on folk rhythms present in the Chilean tradition. He worked intensively with the band, performing in Brazil, USA, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, the Czech Republic, UK, Denmark, Sweden, India, China, and Japan, giving concerts and workshops.

During 2021-2022, he worked as a music teacher at the ARCOS Arts Institute in Viña del Mar, Chile, teaching the subjects of Conducting and Ensemble Music.

His compositions, such as “Hoppa” and “El Gran Norte” have been played by many groups and ensembles worldwide. He has been a finalist twice in the Chilean National Contest of Composition “Luis Advis,” with the songs “Jallalla” (2013) and “Quema tus Naves” (2018).

In 2024, Ernesto will participate in the “Ethno Uganda” and “Ethno Solomon Islands” music camps as an artistic mentor and as an orchestra conductor at Burwell Bash in Cambridgeshire, UK.