Carlos Fariñas

Carlos Fariñas was a Cuban composer. In 1989, he founded the Electroacoustic and Computer Music Studio (EMEC) in the Music School of the University of Arts of Cuba (ISA), which he directed until he passed away. Even though he composed over sixty pieces for chamber, choral, voice, and orchestra formats, as well as for ballet, cinema, and theatre, electroacoustic composition was one of his main concerns. His first electroacoustic works appeared in the films Posición Uno by Rogelio Paris (1968) and De la Guerra Americana by Pastor Vega (1970). In 1973, he composed his first multimedia concert piece, Corales. The works in his catalogue include Madrigal (1980), Aguas territoriales (1983), Primer día de mayo (1984), Impronta (1985), Cuarzo – variaciones fractales (1993), and Orbitas elípticas (1993). Carlos Fariñas visited important electroacoustic music studios in Europe and Latin America, such as the Scriabin Center in Moscow, the ORTF and IRCAM in Paris, the Senoviev Studio in London, the Stockholm studios (Sweden), the studios in Rome and Milan, and the one in Caracas (Venezuela), directed by Eduardo Cusmir. His compositions have been performed at important events in Europe and the Americas. In an interview, published by the journalist Victor Roura in Uno + Uno, Carlos Fariñas stated: “I think that there is an incommensurable, open road of enormous possibilities with respect to electroacoustic music. I don’t consider electroacoustic music to imply an aesthetic position. It is a new service of technology to artistic creation. I don’t believe it conveys any aesthetic ideology. The result will depend on the composer’s capacity or talent.”