Chilean-American composer Javier Farias is the recipient of numerous international awards, including First Prize in the Andrés Segovia Composition Competition, the International Composing Competition «2 Agosto» and the Michele Pittaluga Composition Competition. In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Fromm Music Foundation Prize at Harvard University for a double guitar concerto composed for Sérgio and Odair Assad and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas.
Farias’s catalog spans a wide range of formats—from solo guitar and full guitar ensembles to chamber music, choral works, and large-scale orchestral compositions. He has written five guitar concertos, and his music has been premiered and recorded by renowned artists such as Andy Summers (The Police), Daniel Binelli (Astor Piazzolla’s sextet), jazz guitarist Mike Stern, and classical guitarists Eliot Fisk, Pablo Sainz-Villegas, Ben Verdery, and David Tanenbaum. His works have also been performed by ensembles and orchestras including Sphinx Virtuosi, PubliQuartet, Apollo Chamber Players, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, and L’Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino.
His compositions have been premiered in acclaimed venues such as Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Instituto Cervantes (New York City), Tsuda Hall in Japan, Meistersaal (Berlin), Troy Music Hall, and the Organization of American States, among others.
His music for guitar is also included in the curriculum of leading conservatories such as the Conservatory of Paris, Yale University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
Farias currently serves as Cultural Ambassador for the Chilean-American Foundation, based in Washington, DC.
Chilean-American composer Javier Farias has led a prominent musical career, establishing himself as a versatile and innovative composer. His catalogue, which includes over one hundred compositions, spans a wide range of genres, from chamber music to orchestral works, concertos, jazz ensembles, choral music, and distinctive instruments such as the bandoneón, flamenco guitar, electric guitar, and the charango, a small Andean guitar. This diverse body of work showcases his unique ability to blend both traditional and contemporary sounds.
Farias has been honored by having his music performed and recorded by some of the main exponents of the guitar today such as Eliot Fisk, Pablo Sainz-Villegas, Ben Verdery, David Tanenbaum, Joaquín Clerch Díaz, Gabriel Bianco, Eduardo Isaac, Luis Orlandini, Romilio Orellana, José Antonio Escobar, Ricardo Cobo, Carlos Perez, Andy Summers—legendary rock guitarist of The Police, and premier jazz-fusion guitarist Mike Stern among many others. His music has been premiered in lauded venues such as Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Instituto Cervantes in New York, Tsuda Hall in Japan, Bing Concert Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, Troy Music Hall, and the Organization of American States among many others.
In 2014, Farias was awarded a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University for a new concerto for two guitars composed for Sergio and Odair Assad and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas. He has also won first prizes in the Michele Pittaluga Composition Competition for Classical Guitar (2004), the Andrés Segovia Composition Contest (2005), and the 2 Agosto International Composing Competition (2008) with Canta la Tierra, a work for symphonic orchestra. Since 2004, Farias has been awarded funding from the Chilean Council for the Arts for more than 10 different projects in support of his composing, premieres, and recording. In 2017, he was awarded the Maryland State Individual Artist Award in recognition of the importance of his work of excellence to the cultural vibrancy of Maryland.
Other notable commissions have come from Sphinx Virtuosi, L’Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, Voce Chamber Singers, Carnegie Hall’s PlayUSA program, Apollo Chamber Players, San Francisco Conservatory Guitar Ensemble, Wake Forest University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, and the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (VA), and commission funding from the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, the Inter-American Development Bank, New Music USA, and Centro Cultural de Tijuana in Mexico.
Farias’ music has also been premiered, programmed, and or recorded by Philharmonie Baden-Baden, Aspekte New Music, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, PUBLIQuartet, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet, Ulysses Quartet, Agarita, Alturas Duo, Daniel Binelli—bandoneonist of Astor Piazzolla’s sextet, and dozens of guitarists around the world. His music written for guitar has also been included in guitar program repertoire for conservatories including the Conservatoire of Paris, Yale University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
A native of Chile, Javier Farias founded the Ensamble de Guitarras de Chile in 2006; a group that brings together the most outstanding guitarists throughout Chile. In its almost 20 years of existence, there have been more than 70 guitarists who have participated in premiering more than 25 works by composers from Chile, Argentina, United States, France, Taiwan, Greece, and Puerto Rico that have been written for the ensemble.
In the academic world, Javier Farias has served as professor of composition at Escuela Moderna de Música y Danza in Chile from 2001 to 2012 where he also studied composition. With a subsequent move to Washington DC, he was Composer in Residence at the Latin American Music Center at Catholic University of America in 2013.
Javier Farias (b.1973, Santiago Chile) is a member of ASCAP. His music for guitar is published by Berben (Italy), E.M.E.C. (Spain), Doberman-Yppan, and Les Productions d’OZ (Canada). Farias publishes the remainder of his catalogue with Axial Ediciones.
He currently resides in the Washington, DC area and serves as the Cultural Ambassador for the Chilean-American Foundation, also based in Washington, DC.