Guitarist, composer and plastic, artist.
Bertrand Chavarría-Aldrete (Mexican-Spanish born in Lyon, France) studied in Mexico (Gregorio Rangel, Édgar Cortés, Andrés Liceaga, Pedro Salcedo, Martín Madrigal), France (Raymond Gratien, Judicaël Perroy, Thanh Nguyen), The Netherlands (Zoran Dukic) and Portugal (Faculdade de Belas Artes, Porto).
As a guitarist he has premiered up to seventy works for guitar, guitar and electronics and electric guitar and worked closely with composers such as Rebecca Saunders, Michael Finnissy, Ramon Lazkano, Gérard Pesson, José Luis Torá, Frédéric Pattar, Fernando Fiszbein, Jaime Reis, Colin Roche, Alberto Hortigüela or Felix Ibarrondo.
Due to a very wide repertoire, from renaissance up to the music written nowadays, he has been invited festivals like Time of Music (Finland), ContemPuls (Czech Republic), Ars Musica (Belgium), IRCAM, Fondation Royaumont, Cité de la Musique, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Festival Musica (France), Festival Internacional de Guitarra de México, Festival Visiones Sonoras, Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Monterrey (Mexico), Inter Arts Center (Sweden), Stekávání Nové Hudby Plus – Brno (Czech Republic), Gaida Festival (Lithuania), Frankfurter Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (Germany), Susa Festival (Denmark), Sound 59 Festival (Russia), Quincena Musical Donostiarra, Festival Nous Sons – L’Auditori, Contemporary Music Series BBVA Foundation, Festival ENSEMS, Concert series CNDM – Museo Reina Sofia or Festival de Música de Alicante (Spain); made recordings for Radio France, Radio Nacional de España, as well as for the labels Sismal Records, LH Production, 3D Classics, Moving Furniture Records and Odradek Records. Collaborated with ensembles like Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Intercontemporain or Ensemble Arcema.
In 2006 he co-founded and directed for twelve years the SMASH Association in Spain (SMASH ensemble and Festival Internacional SMASH de Música Contemporánea), which aimed to promote and create contemporary music, involving also many pedagogical activities for children with music, theatre and plastic arts.
His creative part as an artist extends through different channels; extensions/consequences that emerge in a wider artistic expression. His musical composition is based on creating works with different visual and sound supports that can only be entirely perceived in situ. In 2019 his string quartet douleur exquise had a second prize at the 7ème Concours International de Composition – Quatuor Molinari in Montréal, Canada.
As a filmmaker has created two documentaries (75 Centavos, Diario Portuense) and videos (Folias de España, Fuga (soiseubuda)). As a plastic artist his current work concentrates on a collection of structures and sound installations that are a plastic-visual extension of music, an intervention process (poiesis/praxis) of performance, creation and will.
As a plastic artist he has exhibited at Galería Rua do Sol, Centro Portugués de Fotografía, Forum de Maia, GNRation, Faculdade de Belas Artes de Porto (Portugal), Centro Cívico Las delicias, Tocatta en A and Centro José Luis Mosquera (Spain).