FY25 Individual Artist Fellowship in Music Composition: Jorge Variego

By Jared Morrison, Director of Performing Arts

Congratulations to Jorge Variego, this year’s Individual Artist Fellowship recipient in Music Composition. Growing up immersed in the music of Astor Piazzolla and Argentine folklore, Variego’s work resonates with characteristic rhythmic structures and harmonic colors that reflect his diverse musical upbringing. His compositions, as he describes, are “small sonic worlds” that defy categorization, seamlessly blending jazz, tango, rock, and experimental elements, creating music that exists “between the cracks” of conventional genre definitions.

Born in Rosario, Argentina, he is a former Fulbright Scholar and is currently on the Music Theory/Composition faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and is the composition program director at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Actively involved with technology in sound and music, Variego has been a pioneer in the field of interactive computer music, having created and performed a great deal of works for clarinet and electronics in the US, Europe and South America.

We commend Jorge Variego on this well-deserved recognition. His artistic journey continues to captivate and enrich the global music community, promising new realms of exploration and creativity in the years to come.