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Rafael Gargate *
Rafael Gargate, the Peruvian violist, began in music at an early age with violin/ viola with his uncle Edgar Gargate; At 16 years old he entered the National Conservatory of Music from Peru as a student of Roberto Gonzales.
In 2012 he won the competition for soloists of the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. In 2016 he was invited as a soloist to the opening concert of the Arequipa Symphony Orchestra. Take classes with the teachers Stefan Fehland, a member of the German quartet Vogler Quartet, Roland Glassl, the Mandelring Quartet, Lawrence Dutton, the Emerson Quartet, and Roberto Díaz among others.
He participated in music festivals in Brazil and the United States. He earned an AD in 2020 and he finished his MM in May 2022 with Marylene Gingras-Roy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In 2022 he won a Viola position in Canton Symphony and Akron Symphony, in 2023 he won the Associate Principal Viola in Erie Philharmonic.
In 2023 he won the Grant Park Music Festival Viola Fellow. He recently became a new member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Viola position, in 2024.
