“Top class, outstanding…bracing and evocative”
Classical Guitar Magazine
“Haunting, lyrical, and intense”
The Washington Post
“Top class, outstanding…bracing and evocative”
Classical Guitar Magazine
“Haunting, lyrical, and intense”
The Washington PostInternationally recognized for his work, Chilean-American composer Javier Farias has been awarded First Prize in the Andrés Segovia Composition Competition, the International Composing Competition «2 Agosto,» and the Michele Pittaluga Composition Competition for Classical Guitar. Farias was also honored with the 2014 Fromm Music Foundation Prize at Harvard University for a concerto composed for two guitars, written for Sérgio and Odair Assad and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas. His catalog as a composer includes works ranging from solo guitar to guitar ensembles, as well as pieces for guitar alongside chamber groups, choral music, and orchestral settings, including five guitar concertos.
DANZA
Arranged and produced by Javier Farias, Danza—a song composed by Patricio Anabalon—was released in February 2025, featuring the legendary Cuban artist Silvio Rodríguez.
Led by David Tanenbaum, the San Francisco Conservatory Guitar Ensemble premiered and recorded La Otra Voz in 2019 for an album featuring this work and my piece Nazcan. Anticipated to be released in 2021.
LA OTRA VOZ
A 40-minute suite challenging the boundaries of the classical guitar by juxtaposing elements of jazz, rock, classical, and electronic music.
scored for electrical guitar, 8 classical guitars, contrabass, and electronics.
Alturas Duo
Praised by The Washington Post as playing with "marvelous virtuosity," Alturas Duo is guitarist Scott Hill and Carlos Boltes on viola and charango (a small, ten-string Andean guitar). Bringing together the worlds of South American folk, western classical, and contemporary music, the duo is one of the most engaging chamber ensembles today. Alturas Duo has recorded for Brioso, Con Brio, Ravello Records, and Naxos.
Y de Pronto la Vida
In this upcoming recording project
with the Alturas Duo and Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Chilean composer Javier Farías pays homage to two iconic figures of Latin American culture:
Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara,
a pivotal contributor to the Nueva Canción Chilena—New Chilean Song—movement who was tortured and killed under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and the internationally celebrated surrealist Peruvian poet Blanca Varela.
Two major pieces will be recorded. El Vuelo de tu Alma, the piece focused on Victor Jara, was originally composed for charango and classical guitar, and for Alturas Duo. In 2018, Farías extensively rewrote it to include string quartet. The second work is being composed as part of an ongoing effort to expand the concert repertoire for the charango. It is to be a five-movement suite written for charango, guitar, and string quartet and based on Blanca Varela’s collection of poems, Canto Villano.
Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Comprised of Saúl, Arón, and Álvaro Bitrán, and Javier Montiel, Cuarteto Latinoamericano has been the leading proponent of Latin American music for string quartet for almost forty years. The Cuarteto has been recognized with the Mexican Music Critics Association Award, received Chamber Music America/ASCAP’s “Most Adventurous Programming” Award three times, and has twice won the Latin Grammy for Classical music: in 2012 for Brasileiro, works of Francisco Mignone, and in 2016 for El Hilo Invisible.
FAST PACED GUITARS
scored for classical, acoustic, and electric guitar, percussion, and electronics.
take a listen
Written and recorded to feature Grammy® nominee and legendary jazz-fusion electric guitarist Mike Stern
preview the score by clicking the image
"Javier Farías is a wonderful musician.
Really an amazing player and a wonderful and passionate composer. When I heard his music I was really impressed not just with his technical abilities which are amazing but also and especially the soul of his music. I am very proud to be included on this project. It is an honor to be able to collaborate with this very, very special musician."
Really an amazing player and a wonderful and passionate composer. When I heard his music I was really impressed not just with his technical abilities which are amazing but also and especially the soul of his music. I am very proud to be included on this project. It is an honor to be able to collaborate with this very, very special musician."
Mike Stern
Jazz-fusion guitarist
NAZCAN/LA OTRA VOZ
To be released in 2025, this new album features two major works for guitar ensemble by Javier Farias, commissioned by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Selected Published Works
