Coro San Benito is a chamber group of amateur singers who are developing their singing as a means of enriching their lives, both artistically and personally.

Founded in 1988 under the wing of the Abadía San Benito, in Palermo, Buenos Aires, it was jointly directed by Marcela Gros and José Toccalino, with Gros remaining as director until 1994. During this period, in 1991, the group became independent of the Abbey to develop along its own lines.

In 1995 Juan Martín Picarel took on the leadership of the choir, and has presented programmes with music, sacred and profane, from the English, Italian, French & Spanish Renaissance (including composers such as Palestrina, Victoria, Guerrero, Mateo Flecha, Lassus, Willaert, Weelkes, Morley, Bennet), Songs and motets from German Romanticism (Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bruckner, Hensel, Rheinberger), Argentine folk music, works of French composers Debussy and Duruflé and XIX & XX English Songs (Elgar, Holst, Stanford, Parry, Finzi, Cooke, Barnby, Britten, Finzi y Howells amongst others).

Rehearsals are on Tuesdays from 20:00 to 22:00 in Palermo, Paraguay & Thames.

The Director: Juan Martín Picarel

Juan Martín holds a Licenciature in Choir and Orquestra Conducting, having studied in the Collegium Musicum, the Municipal Conservatory  'Manuel de Falla', and graduating from the Arts and Musical Sciences Faculty of the Universidad Católica Argentina. In 1996 & 1997 he studied Renaissance Music under Eduardo Sohns, and studied choir direction under Maestros. Julio Fainguersch (1998) and  Werner Pfaff (2001), and studied piano under Diana Schneider. 

Juan Martín has been an outstanding member of choral groups such as:

• El Coro de Cámara Adrogué,
• El Grupo de Canto Coral and El Grupo Vocal de Difusión. 

He has also been member of vocal groups such as Lilium and Cantica Nova, dedicated to the interpretation of Renaissance Music.

Between 1994 and 1996 he served as Assistant to the Director, Maestro Marcelo Ortiz Rocca in the Coro de la U.A.D.E., the Coro de la Fundación Omega Seguros, the Grupo Coral Santa Rita, the Camerata Vocal de Belgrano, the Coro de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la UBA and the Coro de Cámara Adrogué. Later he served as Sub-Director to the last two named Choirs until 1998 y 2000 respectively. 

He directed the Choirs of All Saints Schools, in Villa Adelina, from 1996 to 2000; specifically leading the Senior School Choir from its year of foundation and reaching 2nd place in the 2nd Federal Olympics "Canto Joven" in 1998.

Currently he has been Director of the Coro San Benito since 1995, is the founder of the Coro de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la UBA (in Sept 1998) and from 2000, the orquestras of Colegio San Lucas.