Gonzalo Varela
Montevideo
I am a Uruguayan composer, sound designer, and guitarist. My passion for artistic collaboration and my interest in a diverse array of musical styles have led me to work on numerous video games released on all major platforms, films, audiovisual series, theatre plays and other media.
I have received awards from Uruguay’s Ministry of Education and Culture (including three National Music Awards), the Kino London Short Film Festival, the Uruguayan Choral Association and Columbia College Chicago, among others. Additionally, my work has received dozens of nominations, special mentions and other recognition from the likes of UK Music Video Awards, Video Prisma Awards, Premios Quirino, Premios Florencio, and Premios Graffiti. My compositions have been performed in at least ten countries, and my publications include a wide range of music albums, books, articles and software. As a performer I have given over three hundred concerts in four countries.
I am pursuing a PhD in Arts with a specialization in Audiovisual and Multimedia Arts at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina) (thesis advisors: Fernando Miranda and Daniel Belinche). I hold a Master of Fine Arts degree, specialization: Music Composition for the Screen, from Columbia College Chicago (United States) (primary instructor: Kubilay Uner), supported by a Fulbright-ANII scholarship. I also hold two Bachelor’s degrees from the Universidad de la República (Uruguay), one in Music, specialization: Composition (primary instructor: Osvaldo Budón) and another in Musical Performance, specialization: Guitar (primary instructors: 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.
I am an Academic Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Universidad de la República, and I teach at the Universidad de la República and the Universidad Tecnológica (Uruguay). I have also held teaching positions at two other universities: Columbia College Chicago and the Universidad Católica del Uruguay, and have been a guest lecturer at additional universities in Argentina, Spain and the United States. I have served on evaluation committees for doctoral and master's theses, as well as undergraduate capstone projects. Furthermore, I have worked for composers such as Joel Corelitz, Roque Baños, Tom Howe, Ilya Levinson and Sebastian Huydts, either in the context of my university positions or independently.
Last update: 6 July 2026