Sofía Cancino de Cuevas first quartet for strings, catalogued as Op. 1. In 1940, she received an honorable mention for her symphonic poem "El gallo en Pátzcuaro" for orchestra and male choir, in a contest organized by UNAM. In 1941 she directed the presentation of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Arbeu theater, with the participation of singers (baritone), Carlos Mejía (tenor), and Margarita Cueto (soprano), among others. This made her Mexico's first female conductor. In 1944 she founded the Opera School, with which she conducted "La serva padrona" by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, "Bastien und Bastienne" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and "Il matrimonio segreto" by
Zar und Zimmermann Zar und Zimmermann Zar und Zimmermann ("Tsar and Carpenter") is a comic opera in three acts, music by Albert Lortzing, libretto by the composer after Georg Christian Römer's "Der Bürgermeister von Saardam, oder Die zwei Peter", itself based on the French play "Le Bourgmestre de Saardam, ou Les deux Pierre" by Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville, Jean-Toussaint Merle, and Eugène Centiran de Boirie. Ultimately, it goes back to the historical Grand Embassy of Peter the Great. Gaetano Donizetti had set the same story in his 1827 opera "Il borgomastro di Saardam". The opera was first performed at the Stadttheater in Leipzig,