unai urkola etxabe

He was born in a small town called Anoeta in 1999 in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, where receiving a music education was as tricky as unusual. He started studying violoncello at the age of 8, and at 15 he entered the Conservatory of Donostia/San Sebastián under the tutelage of Roman Jablonski. Since then, he has continued playing and partaking in various events.

Later on, when he finished his conservatory studies, he was admitted to the Catalonia College of Music (ESMUC), precisely to the classes of Mauricio Sotelo, Fèlix Pastor and Christophe Havel. In recent years he has been exploring the limits of narrative discourse and graphic writing in music and examining and theorizing about the concept of “Limit Music”, a topic about liminality, applied from Cultural Anthropology.

This makes sense because, in 2020, he also commenced studying Anthropology and Human Evolution at l’UOC following a personal interest in human behavior and nature. Finally, in 2022 he moved to Cologne to start a Master’s in Electroacoustic Composition with Michael Beil at the HfMT. There he began to dive more into the applicability of the (Queer) Virtual Culture to new performative environments, from classically defined concerts to installations and dance.

Regarding collaborations, awards, and courses, he has participated in numerous orchestras such as the “Young Orchestra of Euskadi”, has received the composition award of the “Young Musicians of Euskadi Contest” and has attended as well a miscellanea o composition and improvisation courses, such as the Synthesis composition course in Warsaw, Poland, and MIxtur in Barcelona. He has also worked with the Ensemble Musikfabrik, Bonner gkg, and participated at the Sommerblut Festival, Relay, and more.