Santiago Kodela is a multi-award winning Classical Guitarist & Composer working in the areas of concert, solo instrument, chamber, and choral music. His works explore various aspects of sound and harmony, adventuring intensely into the areas of iso-rhythms, metric modulation, and chord harmonisation.
In 2023, Santiago Kodela unveiled ‘The Distant Shepherd,’ his solo guitar suite released through Navona Records, earning him the prestigious 3rd Prize Bronze Medal from the North American Global Music Awards. This marked Santiago’s third consecutive award in the classical/contemporary music category from this entity. Concurrently, he collaborated with guitarist Oscar Montague to establish the Éire Guitar Duo, dedicated to elevating classical guitar through performances and original compositions tailored for this unique chamber ensemble, contributing meaningfully to the classical guitar landscape.
In 2022, Santiago received acclaim for the album ‘Pinnacle Vol. 2,’ featuring the string quartet ‘Euphoria,’ securing the 2nd Prize Silver Medal from the same awards in the classical category. Furthermore, his composition ‘Delicate Soliloquies’ was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2nd Composition Competition by the Dutch Guitar Foundation, judged by Steve Goss, JacobTV, and Nikita Koshkin.
In 2021, Santiago achieved the 1st Prize Gold Medal at the 125th edition of the Feis Ceoil, Ireland’s largest classical music competition, in the Senior Classical Guitar category. Furthermore, the album ‘Sustain, Vol. 2,’ featuring ‘Bewildered Soliloquies,’ earned the 2nd Prize Silver Medal from the aforementioned awards. He also received the Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award to support the advancement of his compositions.
In 2020, Santiago was honored with dual awards from the Arts Council of Ireland: the COVID-19 Crisis Response Award and the Professional Development Award. For the former, he live-streamed a global guitar recital featuring his original compositions. Pursuing the latter, he crafted a portfolio of guitar compositions under the guidance of Dr. Marco Ramelli at Technological University Dublin.
In 2018, Santiago completed a Master’s Degree in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin, specializing in Audio Production and Contemporary Music Composition, guided by Dr. Ann Cleare.
As a performer, Santiago initiated his guitar studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Música ‘Manuel de Falla’ (Argentina) under María Catalina Bello. After exceptional academic performance, he pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (Ireland), excelling in classical guitar under Marion Hyland. In 2016, he showcased his talent with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, performing the ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ under Gavin Maloney.
Santiago toured extensively in Argentina and Ireland, participating in masterclasses with artists like Berta Rojas, Xuefei Yang, Walter Malosetti, Odair Assad, and Craig Ogden.
Kodela’s compositions have been performed by distinguished artists like Fidelio Trio (London), Ficino Ensemble (Dublin), clarinetist Paul Roe (Technological University Dublin) in collaboration with dance artist Laura Sarah Dowdall, Kühn Choir (Prague), pianist Adam Marks (New York), and the Benda Quartet (Czech Republic). His works are internationally managed by PARMA Recordings / Navona Records.