[1] Maria Mireya Arboleda Cadavid was born in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia on July 1, 1928 to Fernando Arboleda López, the mayor of Palmira and Rosa Cadavid Medina along with five other sisters, Esmeralda, Pubenza, Fabiola, Violeta, and Soffy.

[2] Arboleda began studying music when she was 6 years old at the Antonio María Valencia de Cali Conservatory.

At the conservatory, Arboleda received her Title in Music and Artistic Diploma in 1957 under the tutelage of Hungarian pianist Miklos Schwalb.

[4] As a concert pianist, Arboleda performed recitals and concerts in international venues such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, The Town Hall in New York City,[5] the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas, and the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.

Arboleda later became a head music professor at the National University of Colombia, spending around 30 years of her life in teaching altogether.