Carlé Costa was born in 1959 in Uruguay and grew up in Argentina. Currently he lives in Berlin, Germany.
He performed in 16 countries spread over three continents presenting his own compositions as well as a great spectrum of repertory, in venues as for example:
- Berliner Philarmonie, Germany
- KUMU Museum of Modern Art, Estonia
- Como Uma, Paro- Kingdom of Bhutan
- Rabindranath Tagore Cultural Center, Kolkata-India
- Festival d´ella Armonia, Italy
- Festival Internacional Ushuaia Clásica, Argentina
- Festival Acéfalo de Música Experimental, Chile
- Mozarteum, Uruguay
- Festival Iberoamericano de Música Contemporánea, Peru
- Twents Guitar Festival, Netherlands
- Uppsala International Guitar Festival, Sweden
- San Francisco Conservatory of Music, CA, USA
He performs regularly solo, as soloist with orchestra, as an improviser in different constellations, and toured several times sponsored by the Goethe Institut and the Berliner Senatskanzlei.
Further, he recorded for national Televisions from Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Sweden, Switzerland, and India. CD´s with recordings of his interpretations and own compositions are released since 1986 in Argentina, Peru, and Sweden.
In former times he studied with several teachers and in the National Conservatory of Argentina.
In his younger years, he won two national competitions: one for string instruments, the other for chamber music, but soon, for philosophical and artistic reasons, he avoided developing his carrier throughout contests, which explains why he denies
in present times all kinds of requests to be a jury member in any kind of competition.
As a pioneer of contemporary music in Latin America, he gave his first master class for the National Conservatory of Peru in 1981, and then in 1984 the first two seminars of contemporary guitar in whole Argentina – after almost 16 years of a bloody dictatorship that among other things hindered the development of contemporary art in all its expressions-, for the Municipal Conservatory Buenos Aires.
Some of his compositions from those times are considered milestones among contemporary repertory – NN, Tráfico Pesado -guitar quartet- (both very important references for the development of an alternative way to play the guitar), Cantos en la
Piedra, Visiones sobre las 9 rocas -for piano- .
Costa develops in former years an intuitive connection with free-improvisation with an own language, which has been recognized by the multimedia improvisation group Vario 6 from Köln –Germany- when he played with them in 1982 in the Goethe Institut Buenos Aires. Later he founded the multimedia group Cuarteto de Medios Múltiples, with dancers Rhea Volij and others, working basically with non-musical instruments: broken objects to produce unusual refined sounds, but from an unpredictable source. This group performed for Municipal Radio Buenos Aires in the 1st Contemporary Music Festival of EINMC, and other venues and cultural centers.
He paints and photographs making several presentations, and learns Tai Chi Chuan with Sifu Ma Tsun Kuen, beginning a more integrative path in art.
In the 90th he left Buenos Aires, to live in the forests northwest of Argentina. He considers that part of his life as some melting pot for inner alchemy, a highly important study about nature and silence, folk traditions; he rediscovered the guitar, the musical language, and artistic forms from another perspective. But until today Costa recreates himself constantly in his creative work, and that is why his opinion is respected as one important reference for art.
He composed on demand by international soloists, orchestras, choreographs, and music festivals.
Scores of his music are released by the french publisher “Edition Lemoins” as well as “Ex tempore” and “Chanterelle” from Germany, and recently “DeSantisPublications” from Berlin prepares a large part of his compositions, not only for guitar but also for piano, flute, orchestra and chamber music, as well as educational works.
Parallel to the artistic activities, Costa devotes himself to awaken and promote through out a personal holistic didactic the creativity of young musicians.
He gave masterclasses, lectures, and seminars for institutions as Uppsala University of Sweden, Universidad Arsis of Chile, National Conservatories of Music of Peru, Estonia and Argentina among others.
The “Festival Internacional de Guitarristas-Compositores en el Noroeste Cordobés”, Argentina, was grounded and directed by him since 2000 until 2005. He was co-grounder, co-director, and teacher of “Campus Internacional de Guitarra Comtemporánea”, Argentina, since 2001 till 2005.
Since 2006 he teaches privately classical guitar, and chamber music and free improvisation in mixed ensemble at the Leo Kestenberg Musikschule Berlin.