About
I am a composer and researcher based in Montevideo, Uruguay. I received my degree in composition from the Universidad de la República (Udelar), although my real training as a composer came from my studies with Héctor Tosar between 1982 and 1986, and from my long conversations with Ariel Martínez over the years. I attended several seminars and masterclasses with leading figures like Klaus Huber, Nicolaus A. Huber, Misha Mengelberg, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Reinhard Oehlschägel, Carmelo Saitta, Dieter Schnebel and Philip Tagg, among many others.
I also studied guitar with Atilio Rapat and Krishna Salinas (1979–1982), and piano with Santiago Baranda Reyes (1980–1982).
In the 1990s–2000s I played the chico drum in several candombe comparsas, mainly in “Concierto Lubolo” and its successor “Sinfonía de Ansina”.
Composition
My list of compositions includes instrumental, electro-acoustic and mixed pieces, some of which have been released on CD.
Research
My main research has focused on the documentation and analysis of Uruguayan candombe drumming. I began this project in the early 1990s, making field and studio recordings, transcriptions, and analyses. Since then, I have published numerous papers at international conferences and in high-profile academic journals. In 2014, I began collaborating with Martín Rocamora in an interdisciplinary team with the aim of continuing the documentation work and tackling the analysis using computational musicology techniques and methods. The material generated by a decade of work is available on the Candombeando website, which includes publications, audiovisual recordings, and data collections.
Teaching
In 1988, I began teaching at the University’s School of Music (now the Institute of Music of the Faculty of Arts), where I reached the position of full professor. There I taught harmony and musical aesthetics, and in 1996 I co-founded the Electroacoustic Music Studio (eMe), which I directed from 2004 until my retirement in 2024.
Csound
I have been actively involved in the Csound user community since 1996, and in 2017 I organized the IV International Csound Conference in Montevideo. I am also the author of csound-vim, a plugin for editing and compiling Csound files in the Vim text editor.
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