María del Rosario Álvarez Martínez stands out as a pioneer, becoming the first woman to hold a professorship in Music History in Spain. Furthermore, since 1985 she has been a member of the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts, an institution she presided over from 2009 to 2017. Throughout her career, Álvarez has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the National Musicology Prize in 1982 and the Gold Medal of the Canary Islands, awarded in 2005.

Much of his research focused on the rescue, preservation, and dissemination of the Canary Islands' musical heritage through the creation of musical archives. Initially, he worked at the Institute of Canarian Studies and later facilitated the deposit of archives belonging to prominent musicians in the Provincial Historical Archive by their families. In collaboration with Lothar Siemens, he directed the RALS musicological project between 1996 and 2017, dedicated to the recovery of Canarian musical heritage, which included the publication of research books, scores, and CDs. He also wrote the first volume of the history of Canarian music, entitled Music in Canarian society throughout history I: from the aboriginal period to 1600, published in 2005.

The University of La Laguna together with the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts San Miguel Arcángel will hold a tribute to the musicologist, which will take place on Monday, April 27th in the Paraninfo at 7:00 p.m.