"a gifted Brazilian-American modernist" Listen to Felipe Lara's Music
"This was one of the freshest 21st-century works one has heard" Explore Felipe Lara's Works
  • Upcoming Project New work, Breathing Blocks (In Memoriam Kaija Saariaho), for symphony orchestra for the 70th anniversary of the São Paulo Symphony, conducted by Thierry Fischer.photo credit: Marco Borggreve more works
  • Upcoming Project New work for the Grossman Ensemble commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago.photo credit: Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition more works
  • Upcoming Project New work, Bonecas Russas, commissioned by Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, for loadbang.photo credit: Tatiana Daubek more works
  • Latest News
    The New York Times: Best Classical Music Performances of 2023

    Felipe Lara
    The New York Philharmonic gave some remarkable concerts this year... perhaps most notable was the New York premiere, in March, of Felipe Lara’s 2019 Double Concerto, which made Claire Chase (on many flutes) and Esperanza Spalding (vocalizing while playing double bass) into a seething and exuberant, if not always sunny, organism. (Read our review of the Lara concerto.)
    photo credit: Chris Lee

  • Latest News
    Recipient of the Nexus Award from Johns Hopkins University

    Felipe Lara was a recipient of the Nexus Award, from Johns Hopkins University. He will be co-curating the Polyaspora Festival with George Lewis, a five-day event focused on contemporary music by black, Brazilian, and Peabody student composers. The festival will feature workshops, lectures, and concerts by the International Contemporary Ensemble at Johns Hopkins’ brand new 555 Pennsylvania Avenue building in Washington DC, Fall 2024.
    photo credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

  • featured concert
    Claire Chase’s Density 2036: part i & ii

    Carnegie Hall debut of Parábolas na Caverna and Meditations and Calligraphy part of Claire Chase’s Density project, 18 May 2023 at 7:30pm.

  • Felipe Lara’s sensational Double Concerto, with Claire Chase and Esperanza Spalding, was played by the New York Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki. photo credit: Chris Lee
    Latest Review
    New York Times Review: A Concerto Makes Two Soloists a Many-Tentacled Creature

    Felipe Lara’s sensational Double Concerto, with Claire Chase and Esperanza Spalding, was played by the New York Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki.
    NY premiere of Double Concerto, for Esperanza Spalding, Claire Chase, and large symphony orchestra, New York Philharmonic, conducted by Susanna Mälkki, David Geffen Hall, March 2023. Financial Times described Lara’s Double Concerto “one of the freshest 21st-century works one has heard,” and the New York Times “sensational,” “a complex but legible, lovable piece; a funky yet elegant ritual; thrilling and taut, if also fundamentally unhurried and unpressured.”
    photo credit: Chris Lee

  • US Premiere
    US premiere of Double Concerto

    US premiere of Double Concerto, for esperanza spalding, Claire Chase, and large symphony orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Susanna Mälkki, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, March 2023.

  • Claire Chase performed Parábolas na Caverna for solo flute, and Meditation and Calligraphy for solo bass flute, at MaerzMusik, Berliner Festspiele, Germany.
    Feature
    MaerzMusik, Berliner Festspiele, Germany

    Claire Chase performed Parábolas na Caverna for solo flute, and Meditation and Calligraphy for solo bass flute, at MaerzMusik, Berliner Festspiele, Germany.

  • Claire Chase performed Parábolas na Caverna for solo flute, and Meditation and Calligraphy for solo bass flute, at MaerzMusik, Berliner Festspiele, Germany.
    featured concert
    Grammy-award-winning Parker Quartet performed Sonare

    Grammy-award-winning Parker Quartet performed Sonare, for string quartet, at John Knowles Paine Hall, Blodgett Chamber Music Series, Harvard University, September 2022.
    photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan

  • Photo by Celeste Sloman for Miller Theatre
    Feature
    Composer Portrait: Felipe Lara

    Miller Theatre Portraits Concert performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni. Rebekah Heller performed Metafagote, for bassoon and fixed media, and ICE performed the NY premiere of Chambered Spirals for large chamber ensemble, Columbia University, New York, March 2022.

  • Photo by Celeste Sloman for Miller Theatre
    Feature
    Royal Academy of Music Bicentennial celebrations

    Commissioned work Postcard 4, for trombone solo, released as part of Royal Academy of Music Bicentennial celebrations, RAM 200. The project involved 200 commissioned composers, including George Benjamin, Hans Abrahamsen, Peter Maxwell Davis, Julian Anderson, Augusta Read Thomas, Joan Tower, and Michael Finnissy, December 2022.