Fernando Velázquez is a Spanish concert, film and TV composer. Among his best known works are the film soundtracks for Juan Antonio Bayona’s films: The Orphanage, The Impossible and A Monster Calls, for which he won the Goya Film Award for Best Original Composition in 2017.
Life and career
He studied cello at a number of different musical conservatories, including, from 1990 to 1993, Andrés Isasi in Getxo, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga in Bilbao and the Conservatory of MusicJesús Guridi in Vitoria, where he won the Excellence Award at the end of his studies. He then travelled to Paris to continue his education. He studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid from 2003 to 2007, and also holds a degree in Contemporary History from the University of Deusto. From these studies came a number of opportunities for collaboration including a two year stint as a cellist for the Classical Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, Edinburgh University's Music Society Symphonic Orchestra in 1998, and at the Basque Country's Young Orchestra between 1999 and 2004. In 1999, Velázquez started his career as a film composer, working with directors such as Koldo Serra for his short film Amor de Madre as well as El Trabajo, by Igor Legarreta and Emilio Pérez Pérez. He continued composing for other short films such as Torre ; Hauspo Soinua ; Retruc ; Loops ; Amor, dinero y salud, por este orden ; El hombre esponja ; El tren de la bruja ; A las 7:35 de la mañana ; Temporada baja, ; El soñador ; El gran Zambini and Dime que yo, which won the Goya Film Award for Best Short Film. Among his compositions for feature films, which now number more than 50, it is possible to find films such as Agujeros en el cielo ; The Birthday, El síndrome de Svensson ; The Backwoods ; Savage Grace ; The Orphanage, the latter film which earned Velázquez a nomination for Best Original Score at the Goya Film Awards of 2008. Additional titles include The Zone, Shiver ; Sexy Killer ; Spanish Movie ; For the Good of Others ; Lope ; Julia's Eyes ; Devil ; 5 metros cuadrados ; BabyCall ; The Impossible, which saw him earn his second nomination for Best Original Film Score in the Goya Film Awards of 2013. Mama ; The Last Days ; Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang ; ' ; Spanish Affair ; Hercules ; Crimson Peak ; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ; Gernika ; Zip & Zap and the Captain's Island. A Monster Calls winner of the Goya Film Award for Best Original Score in 2017. The Invisible Guest ; Ozzy ; The Invisible Guardian ; Deep ; Submergence ; Marrowbone ; Thi Mai, rumbo a Vietnam ; Que baje Dios y lo vea ; Las leyes de la termodinámica ; Los futbolísimos and Superlópez. He has also composed music for Documentaries such Sons of the Clouds and ', winner of the Goya Film Award for Best Documentary; and TV series such Karabudjan, Gominolas and Apaches. He has also composed music for theatre: Continuidad de los parques, de Jaime Pujol; Macbeth ; He has collaborated with the playwright Alfredo Sanzol since 2008 for theatre productions such as Sí pero no lo soy, Días estupendos, En la Luna y Aventura, La ternura, La respiración. In 2015, he composed music for Hacia la alegría-vers la joie, a theatrical production for the Festival d'Avignon, written by Olivier Py. He has also conducted, among others, The Basque National Orchestra, The Community of Madrid Orchestra, The London Philarmonic Orchestra, The RTVE Symphony Orchestra, London Metropolitan Orchestra, Malaga Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Royal Seville Symphonic Orchestra, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, Navarra Symphony Orchestra, Czech National Orchestra, Asturias Symphony Orchestra and Galicia Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he has taken time to record the majority of his productions with State funded Spanish orchestras. He has also produced albums and live concerts for artists such as Pasión Vega, Ken Zazpi, Amancio Prada, Raphael, Doctor Deseo, among others. He also composes concert pieces such as the Christmas cantata Gabon dut anuntzio and Viento del Oeste for the symphony orchestra, commissioned by the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. Amongst his upcoming projects are a cello concerto composed for the Navarra Symphony Orchestra and Asier Polo as well as a concerto for two flutes for the Asturias Symphony Orchestra.
Awards and nominations
In 2008 Velázquez was nominated for Best Original Film Score at the Goya Film Awards for his work in The Orphanage, which awarded him the Cinema Writers Circle Medal and the Musical Award given by the Spanish General Society of Authors and Publishers. In 2012, he was awarded with the Ojo Crítico Award from RTVE in light of his "capacity to compose music specifically created for cinema that has the ability to transcend and reach its own entity". He was again nominated at the Goya Film Awards with The Imposible' and A Monster Calls. He won the Goya for the latter for Best Original Score and received the Feroz Award and the Cinema Writers Circle Award. Velázquez has also been nominated as the 2016 composer by the International Association of Musical Film Writers. He is also a member of the America Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
