Composition Forum with Felipe Lara
Felipe Lara, born in Sao Paolo in 1979, has a long list of collaborations, commissions, and awards. The Arditti, Asasello, and Brentano quartets have performed his works, along with the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, London Sinfonietta, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Some of his compositions, such as the string quartet “Tran(slate)” which won the 2008 Staubach Preis in Darmstadt and premiered by the Arditti Quartet, include live electronics. His “Vocalise 2,” for two vocalizing amplified saxophonists, was performed in Paris in February 2016 as well as “Fringes,” a large-scale work for 22 instrumentalists. Lara’s music has also been presented at many festivals all over the United States, South America, and Europe.
Lara '02 credits his Berklee years with opening him up to the wider world of music. He came to Berklee focused on jazz guitar and arranging, but, he says, “there I was pleasantly confronted by all styles, nationalities, and broad possibilities of the musical profession.” This allowed him to bridge “my jazz-popular music background with classical and contemporary composition.” He also holds a Ph.D. from New York University in music composition.
Having previously taught at New York University’s Faculty of Arts and Science, he has been visiting lecturer at Federal University of Bahia (Salvador, Brazil) and is currently Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music's Boston Conservatory, Faculty Artist at John Hopkins University's Peabody Institute, and Visiting Faculty, Lecturer on Music, at Harvard's Department of Music, where he was awarded a Harvard Excellence in Teaching Award (2017).