About Gonzalo Varela

I am a composer, sound designer and guitarist born in 1990 in Montevideo, Uruguay. I have a strong interest in diverse musical styles, which helps me create original music that meets the communicative and expressive needs of each project. My passion for artistic collaboration has led to my work being part of nine video games (including releases for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft consoles, as well as Windows, iOS and Android devices), three feature films, three audiovisual series, fourteen short films, eleven theatre plays and other media. I have received awards from Uruguay’s Ministry of Education and Culture, Fulbright, the Kino London Short Film Festival, the Uruguayan Choral Association and Columbia College Chicago among others, and compositions of mine have been played in concerts, festivals and workshops in nine countries. Additional publications of my work include seventeen music albums, three books, one concert film, three software applications and eleven studies, and as a performer I have given over three hundred concerts in four countries.

I hold a Master of Fine Arts degree, profile: Music Composition for the Screen, from Columbia College Chicago (United States), where my main professor was Kubilay Uner. I also hold two Bachelor’s degrees from the Universidad de la República (University of the Republic) (Uruguay): one in Music, profile: Composition (main professor: Osvaldo Budón), and another one in Musical Performance, profile: Guitar (main professors: Ramiro Agriel and Gonzalo Victoria). In addition, I have studied composition with Coriún Aharonián, Joel Goodman, Ronit Kirchman and Chance Thomas, as well as music genres like Flamenco, Tango, Jazz, Candombe and Javanese Gamelan with various teachers.

I currently am an Academic Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Universidad de la República, and teach at both the Universidad de la República and the Universidad Tecnológica (Uruguay). Besides, I have held teaching positions at two other universities: Columbia College Chicago and the Universidad Católica del Uruguay, and have given short courses, workshops and conferences at additional universities from Argentina. I have also worked for composers such as Joel Corelitz, Roque Baños, Tom Howe, Ilya Levinson and Sebastian Huydts, either in the context of my university roles or independently.

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