Carlos Gutiérrez Quiroga (1982) is a Bolivian composer, performer, archivist and researcher.
His musical work is influenced by the indigenous music of the Bolivian Highlands and has been extended to the creation of instruments, sound objects, public interventions and installations in which he explores Andean tunning systems, spatialization of sound over very long distances, aural illusions, decentralized structures and connections between composition and archival research, orality and experimental writing.
He has composed music for different ensembles, including the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos (OEIN), of which he has been a member since 2003 and its director from 2019 to 2021.
He plays various aerophones from the Andean region both with traditional and extended techniques applied to experimentation and improvisation.
In the field of research, he has developed projects for the study of traditional music in danger of extinction and also for repatriation of sound recordings from western museums to their communities of origin.
In 2020, he founded the Archive and Memory of the Indigenous Music of Bolivia (AMMIB).
Currently, he is working on new forms of codification of traditional instruments measurement systems and post-digital lutherie starting from ancient acoustic technologies.
His compositions and installations have been presented at festivals such as Klangspuren Schwaz (Austria), MATA (United States), Donaueschinger Musiktage, Maerzmusik, Mikromusik (Germany), Tage für Neue Musik and Culturescapes (Switzerland).
He has been commissioned by festivals and institutions like Klangspuren, Akademie der Künste, Munich Biennale – festival of New Music Theater, Maerzmusik, Basel Sinfonietta and has been a fellow of the DAAD Berlin Artist Program, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Camargo Foundation and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.
His work has received largely favorable reviews in major publications such as Musiktexte, New York Times and Van Outernational.
He also composed original music and sound design for theater, short and feature films.