was born in La Paz, Bolivia, 1955. He has been the cofounder and Principal Director of the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos (OEIN) since its establishment in 1980. He works as a freelance composer, researcher, and professor of the indigenous music and instruments of the Aymara and Quechua cultures in the Andean highlands. He is the founder of the Programa de Iniciación a la Música (PIM), based on indigenous Andean philosophy. He studied the guitar (1968–72), flute (1973–77), and piano (1973–77) privately, before completing studies in composition and orchestral conducting at the Catholic University of Bolivia between 1973 and 1978. He made additional graduate studies at the Latin American Courses of Contemporary Music in 1980–89 (Brazil), 1985 (Venezuela), and postgraduate orchestral conducting studies at the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in 1981–83. With the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos (OEIN) he has developed an original contemporary aesthetics of strong ancestral reminiscence in nine large pieces such as La ciudad (1980), Cantos de tierra (1990), Cantos meridianos (1996), Uyariwaycheq (1998), Cantos crepusculares (1999), Otra ciudad (2005), Cantos ofertorios (2009), among others. Prudencio has led the OEIN artistically and institutionally to international success, performing in countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, and Uruguay. Prudencio’s focus on the research of music from the Aymara and Quechua cultures, in fact, constitutes the conceptual framework for his composition aesthetics and the pedagogical system he developed for children and youth. Since 1979, he has advanced significantly in his study of the technical and conceptual meaning of the mentioned instruments and music. In this context he learned to perform on all kinds of indigenous instruments of the Aymaras and Quechuas directly from traditional players and instrument makers.
As Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos he created the composer-in-residence program which to date, has involved composers from Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Austria, and Switzerland, who have created music especially for this instrumentation under Prudencio’s guidance and mostly under his performance direction. Prudencio has also worked as Principal Conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra in San Cristóbal del Táchira, Venezuela (1981–83), Professor of Composition and Analysis at the National Music Conservatory in La Paz (1986–91) and the Catholic University of Bolivia (2000–4/2007–11).
He has composed music for conventional Western instruments, including chamber music, symphonic music, solo works, and electroacoustic music, performed in the Americas, Europe and Australia, some of them published by Tre Media and Ricordi. He has received commissions from the Perth Festival (1996), Pro Helvetia Foundation (1997), Donaueschinger Musiktage (1999), Ensemble TaG, Switzerland (2002), Teatro San Martín, Argentina (2003), Klangspuren in Schwaz (2009), Transart Festival, Italy (2009), and has been composer-in-residence in Perth (1996), Schloss Wiepersdorf (2001), Bellagio Centre on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation (2007), and at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2013). In 2008 he won the Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.
As composer and conductor, Prudencio has recorded twelve works, including seven recordings with the OEIN, four soundtracks, one work music, and a song composition originally composed for the theatre.
Prudencio has also written on music and culture since 1978; a collection of his writings was published under the title Hay que caminar soñando (Fundación Otro Arte, 2010). His music is part of more than fifty Bolivian art film and video soundtracks, of which El día que murió el silencio was awarded Best Original Music at the Trieste International Film Festival (1999).
He has been honoured with the Saint Paul’s Diploma for Cultural Merits by the Catholic University of Bolivia (2005), and with the award Tatú Tumpa for his Expertise and Contribution to the Bolivian art Film Making at the 7th Iberoamerican Film Festival in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (2005). He has also received the Somos Patrimonio special award from the Convenio Andrés Bello, in Bogotá, Colombia, for his work with OEIN (2003).

Works composed for OEIN: La ciudad for traditional Andean instruments ensemble (1980), Tríptica for seven amplified charangos (four performers, 1984–85), Cantos de piedra for traditional Andean instruments, microtonal guitars and percussion (1989), Cantos de tierra for traditional Andean instruments (1990), Los peregrinos for traditional Andean instruments, trumpet, baritone, electric guitar, female voice and percussion (1995), Cantos meridianos for traditional Andean instruments, trumpet, female voice and percussion (1996), Uyariwaycheq for voice, for traditional Andean instruments and percussion (1998), Cantos crepusculares for traditional Andean instruments (1999), Otra ciudad for traditional Andean instruments (2005), Cantos ofertorios for traditional Andean instruments ensemble (2007–9).