Rafael Pablo Gargate Santamaria

Rafael Pablo Gargate Santamaria has made music from an early age, playing percussion instruments and guitar in the Orchestra and Choir of Jesus Nazarene. Later he began his violin studies with the teacher Edgar Gargate Ostos, and at age 13, chose the viola as his principal instrument. At 16, he entered the National Conservatory of Music 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. He has participated in classes with Stefan Fehland of the Vogler Quartet, Roland Glassl of the Mandelring Quartet, Lawrence Dutton of the Emerson Quartet, Roberto Díaz, and others. 

Rafael has participated in music festivals in Brazil and the United States. He earned his Artist Diploma in 2020 under the tutelage of Marylene Gingras-Roy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In 2019, he joined the viola section of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and Altoona Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he began teaching for YADO, SOHO, and Prelude Strings in the city of Erie, Pennsylvania. Rafael completed his master’s degree in performance in May 2022 with Marylene Gingras-Roy at Duquesne University.

Rafael was a Grant Park Music Festival String Fellow in 2023.