Arthur KAMPELA, Composer - Bio

          Arthur Kampela (b. 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), winner of the 1995 International Guitar Composition Competition (Caracas, Venezuela) and winner of the 1998 Lamarque-Pons Guitar Composition Competition (Montevideo, Uruguay), is internationally recognized as both composer and virtuoso guitar player.

           Kampela has broken new ground in two particular ways: first, in his native country as a sort of "Brazilian Frank Zappa", he has fused popular and vernacular styles with contemporary textural techniques.  Second, he has developed new extended techniques for acoustic instruments. In his series of "Percussion Studies" for solo guitar, Kampela has created an entirely new playing technique, denominated "Tapping Technique", combining in a compelling and seamless manner, traditional techniques and noise oriented, percussive effects.

          He has received numerous commissions and awards, from the Rio-Arte Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, New Music Consort, Carioca Guitar Quartet, Helsinki Biennial and fellowships from the Brazilian Government (CNPq) and Columbia University, among others.

Recent achievements (1995-00) include: Festival Archipell (2000), Switzerland, with "Quimbanda" for electric guitar played by Wieck Hijmans; lecturer, guest composer and juror at the "International Guitar Competition", in Caracas, Venezuela (97); participation in the "Sonidos de las Americas" - American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, NYC (96); selected for the ISCM'96 and '97, in Copenhagen and Seoul, respectively and the 43rd International Tribune of Composers of UNESCO, France (95); guest composer for the "AVANTI" Ensemble, Tempeliaukion, Helsinki (95); Helsinki Biennial with a viola piece premiered by the virtuosi Paul Silverthorne; debut of "Variations/Phallanges" for harp solo by Anne Bassand at the 'Kammermusiksaal des Kongresshauses' in Zurich (95); participation at the Festival 'SYNTHESE'94' in Bourges, France, at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC'95) in Canada, and at the electroacoustic Music Festival in Aquila, Italy , with his piece "TEXTORIAS" for computer-generated guitar.

          In 1998, Kampela received a doctorate in composition from Columbia University where he studied with Mario Davidovsky and Fred Lerdahl. In 1993, he received private lessons from the British composer Brian Ferneyhough. Kampela's works have been performed in the leading forums for Contemporary music in South-America, Europe, Asia and the USA. He recently finished a String Quartet, where he employs his system of micro-metric modulation derived from Carter's and Cowell's metric ideas, to bridge complex rhythmic relationships.

An active participant in the New York new music scene he has been composing and performing with his group as well as curating several music series for many unorthdox venues. He presently lives in New York city with his wife Kim and their son, Julian Lua.