Ernesto Cárcamo Cavazos is a composer and guitarist of contemporary acoustic and electronic music. Born in September 1987 in Mexico City, he has studied classical and electric guitar since age 9 and has been actively composing since age 15.  

He received an Arts Bachelor degree in music composition from Brown University in 2009, under the tutelage of Gerald Shapiro where he received the Ron Nelson Award for Music Compositional Excellence. Directly following in 2011, he received an MA in composition from Mills College in California, having studied composition with Roscoe Mitchell and Fred Frith receiving the Margaret Lyon Prize for Outstanding Music Student. 

Upon finishing his studies he has been active in finding new approaches to composition, reflected in new music for acoustic and electronic ensembles, electronic improvisations, spatially-dependent pieces, and combinations of all three. Although artistically focused on musical experimentation and exploration, his approaches have adapted to fit a wide variety of genres and purposes in film and commercial composition. The films he has scored have won numerous awards and have been presented internationally in festivals such as South by Southwest, The Locarno Film Festival, BAFICI, Unknown Pleasures, among others.

Involved in a variety of compositional and performative projects, he has adapted to live performance to explore new compositional ideas based on unexpectedness, indeterminacy, and improvisation in the performative setting. He often incorporates multi-channel and algorithmic systems into his electro-acoustic works to explore the quadraphonic plane and randomness as compositional and performative devices. He performed his quadraphonic piece Xilaquil x 2 in March of 2019 as an artist-in-residence at Rhizome DC sponsored by the Mexican Cultural Institute and developed the collaborative installation El movimiento en la quietud - a binaural, web-based experience commissioned by the Goethe Institute representing the soundscapes and music scenes in Berlin and Mexico City. He most recently received a grant to compose, program, perform and record the suite Cascabeles for hi-hat and electronics, out now on Voltage Control Records.

He’s been commissioned to compose and develop pieces and installations for The Cutty Strange Radio Show, Culture Hub NY, Culture Hub LA, The Center for the Victims of Torture, The Organization of American States, MusikFonds as well as smaller ensembles and groups. He has also expanded his work into sound design and composition for theater working closely with Rhyannon Styles, Yusuke Taninaka, Michalis Agelidis, Xenia Koghilaki, and Minna Partanen.

He currently lives in Berlin, Germany.