Emotion in Motion: Guillermo Jarne Bueno’s Award-Winning Violin Concerto
- WOMCO
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
Guillermo Jarne Bueno was awarded the Absolute First Prize in the Original Composition category of the 2025 Season 2 Vivaldi International Music Competition for his "Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor – Under Iberian Skies: A World in Struggle."
Biography
Guillermo Jarne Bueno, born in 1993, is a Spanish composer and violinist from Madrid. He began his musical training at the age of eight with violinist Virginia Lozanova, and two years later continued his studies at the CIM Padre Antonio Soler Conservatory under the guidance of Polina Kotliarskaya. Raised in an artistic family — with a musician father and a ballet dancer mother — he was immersed in music and performance from an early age.
After many years away from music, Guillermo returned with renewed purpose, this time focusing on composition. His musical voice draws from a broad range of influences: the emotional depth of the Romantic era, the strangeness and tension of modern and contemporary music, and the atmospheric storytelling of cinema.
Guillermo believes there is still space for tonal music in today’s musical landscape — music that dares to be sincere, expressive, and emotionally resonant. His style seeks to bridge tradition and innovation, guided by instinct, vulnerability, and a deep desire to connect with both himself and the listener.
Could you share the inspiration behind "Violin Concerto No. 1 In A Minor - Under Iberian Skies: A World In Struggle" and the message you hope to convey through it?
This piece emerged from a deep need to express raw, unfiltered emotion. At its core, the piece grapples with a timeless and universal conflict — the tension between good and evil, hope and despair, selflessness and selfishness, order and chaos — both within the individual and in the world around us.
Musically, it draws inspiration from the passionate, richly textured traditions of Spanish music, merging lyrical warmth with moments of friction and unrest. The solo violin serves as a human voice navigating these opposing forces — not through virtuosity for its own sake, but through nuance, vulnerability, and emotional depth. I deliberately focused on the instrument’s middle and lower registers, allowing it to sing, plead, resist, and reflect.
Rather than aiming to impress, this concerto seeks to move the listener by taking them on an emotional journey. I also aspired to make it accessible for younger or less experienced performers, such as those in youth orchestras, without compromising its expressive power. Ultimately, this is a piece about struggle and resilience, fragility and strength, and the complexities present in our inner world as well as the world around us.
What was your creative process like while composing "Violin Concerto No. 1 In A Minor - Under Iberian Skies: A World In Struggle"? How did you approach the structure and dynamics of the piece?
Since this violin concerto is my first major composition, I approached it without a predetermined roadmap, allowing the process to unfold organically. I began by developing thematic material internally — crafting and refining melodies and harmonic ideas in my mind until they felt emotionally and musically compelling. Once a theme was clearly shaped, I would notate the basic melodic and harmonic structure — much like laying the foundation of a building.
From there, I gradually built each section, layering textures, refining dynamics, and shaping the orchestration with increasing nuance. Rather than following a rigid structural blueprint, I allowed the form of the piece to emerge intuitively. The architecture of the concerto evolved in tandem with the emotional and thematic development, resulting in a structure that reflects the piece’s inner tensions and narrative flow.
This intuitive, layered process gave me the freedom to listen deeply to what the music was asking for, section by section, while still maintaining a sense of unity and progression across the work.
How did you collaborate with the musicians for the music recording, and were there any memorable moments during the session?
In this recording, I was the sole performer. The orchestral part was created using a high-quality MIDI instrument library, while I performed and recorded the solo violin part myself to bring a layer of human expressivity to an otherwise digital ensemble.
Although there was no collaboration with other musicians in the traditional sense, the process was highly involved and required a great deal of precision. I spent months meticulously shaping the MIDI orchestration — refining articulation, dynamics, and phrasing for each instrument to ensure as much realism and emotional nuance as possible. Composing the piece took approximately three months, and the production process, particularly the MIDI programming and mixing, took an equal amount of time.
The workflow was somewhat unconventional: I first completed a detailed version of the MIDI orchestration, aiming for a level of musicality that could support a natural violin performance. Once the orchestral mockup reached a satisfying level, I recorded the violin solo. Afterward, I returned to the orchestral part to further refine the mix and ensure that the soloist and ensemble blended cohesively, both sonically and expressively.
Though the recording was done independently, it felt like a dialogue — between the digital and the human, the composed and the performed. That interplay became a core part of the final sound.
Would you like to share your experience participating in our competition and thank anyone?
It has been a true honor to participate in this competition and to have my work recognized by the jury member of this competition. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to a few individuals who made this journey possible:
First and foremost, I am incredibly thankful to my partner, Andrew, for his unwavering support and belief in me. His encouragement was instrumental throughout the process, and his help in acquiring much of the equipment and software I needed made this project feasible. I’m also deeply grateful to my mother, whose steady support has been a constant source of strength. Lastly, I would like to thank my friend Magnus, who inspired me to aim high with my first major composition and generously lent me a professional microphone for recording the solo violin part. His confidence in my work gave me the push I needed to pursue this project with ambition and dedication.
