Photo: Circe F. Ervina
Federico Jusid is a prolific and eclectic musician (composer, director, pianist), who combines his activity for concert halls, with the composition for movies and tv shows soundtracks.
Federico Jusid has Spanish citizenship and resides between Los Angeles and Madrid. Born in Buenos Aires as the son of the renowned Argentine film director Juan José Jusid and actress Luisina Brando, Federico grew up among stages and film sets. Soon his passion for music and cinema lead him to develop his career as a film music composer. He has composed the score for more than seventy feature films and forty television series.
Among his original compositions for film, the score for the Award winning film The Secret In Their Eyes stands out. Federico was nominated for this score for the Goya Award by the Spanish Film Academy and achieved several international recognitions. Other notable feature film scores are Federico’s compositions for Neruda, Loving Pablo, Misconduct, Kidnap and 7 years, for which he was the executive producer and has recently premiered the theatrical version in Spain, France, Greece, Argentina and Mexico. He composed the score for the films Cross the Line, The Summer We Live, Life Itself, A Twelve Year Night and the animated miniseries Watership Down, an ambitious BBC project for Netflix on the classic British tale by Richard Adams and for which score Federico has been nominated to a Daytime Emmy Award. In recent years Federico has composed the score for hugely successful projects such as The Asunta Case (Netflix), Santa Evita (Star+ / Disney), Boundless (Amazon Prime), Iosi, The Regretful Spy (Prime Video), The Head (HBO), Now and Then (Apple TV), and The English (BBC/HBO), for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination. Last year, Víctor Erice’s latest creation Close Your Eyes premiered at the Cannes Festival and its score is a candidate for numerous awards. He is currently working on the British production A Gentleman in Moscow (Paramount+/Prime Video).
Throughout his career Federico has been distinguished with more than thirty international awards and nominations for both his concert works and his film scores, such as the First Prize of the Beethoven Piano Competition, First Prize at the A. Williams Piano Competition, and the First Prize of the Friends of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Federico is also a three-time winner of the International Film Music Critics Awards (for Isabel and Carlos King Emperor). He has achieved three nominations for the Platino Awards (for Neruda, Magallanes and La noche de twelve años) and has been distinguished as Composer of the Year 2016 by the Spanish Association of Music Critics and nominated by the IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association) as Composer of the Year in 2020 and in 2022. His score for The Secret in Their Eyes, Academy Oscar Award Winner as best foreign film, achieved several international awards including the Havana Film Festival and the Argentinean Academy Awards, and the nomination from the Goya Awards from the Spanish Film Academy. In 2021 for The Summer We Live he received his second nomination to the Spanish Goya Awards. He has received the Produ Award (distinctions for excellence in television production in Latin America) for the best score for the series Hernán in 2020 and in 2022 for Santa Evita, as well as in the recently established Cóndor de Plata for series, in which he won in the Best Original Score category for Santa Evita and Iosi, The Regretful Spy. In 2023 he received a nomination for the BAFTA Awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Art in the Original Music: Fiction category for the series The English. Also for this miniseries he was nominated for the Royal Television UK Award, the Movie Music UK Award and the IFMCA. Recently, he composed the original music for Close Your Eyes, by Víctor Erice, for which he was nominated for the Feroz Awards and the CEC Medals awarded by the Circle of Cinematographic Writers. In 2023, the Spanish Academy of Television and Audiovisual Arts and Sciences awarded him the Talent Award for his career in the field of music and composition.
His most recognized concert hall compositions include Tango Rhapsody, a piece for two pianos and symphony orchestra commissioned by the Tiempo-Lechner duo for its premiere at the Martha Argerich International Music Festival,, which has been presented worldwide, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel; Kinetic Overture, premiered by the RTVE Orchestra at the Monumental Theatre of Madrid; The Silence of Their Names, commissioned by Victims of Terrorism Foundation and premiered at the National Music Auditorium of Madrid in March 2021; Extimité, commissioned by the Spanish National Center of Music, premiered in 2018 at the Reina Sofía Art Center in Madrid; Enigmas, commissioned by the University of Alcalá de Henares in its V Centenary; Finding Sarasate, premiered at the Pablo Sarasate Centenary Tribute Concert; Danza de Aldeanos, commissioned by the National Center for Music Promotion (CNDM) to commemorate the bicentenary of Prado Museum; and La Librería del Ingenioso Hidalgo, commissioned for the celebrations of the IV Centenary of Don Quijote. In 2022 he conducted the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Colón in a program that included the world premiere of Bidaia, concert for accordion and orchestra, a work commissioned by the OFBA. With this work he performed in 2023 at the head of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, with which in 2024 he released the album Bidaia, with Iñaki Alberdi as soloist. The OCNE (Spanish National Orchestra and Choir) commissioned and premiered in its 23/24 Season its most recent concert piece Itinera 4.0, Tránsitos for concertante grave metal and symphonic orchestra.
As a pianist and conductor, Jusid has performed as a soloist in some of the most recognized halls in North America, Asia and Europe, including the Carnegie Weill Hall in New York; the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires; the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra House of Tel Aviv and the National Auditorium of Madrid. Since 2005 and for over ten years Federico has been resident composer and pianist of the Sonor Ensemble. During these years he has toured throughout Spain, Europe and Asia performing repertoire music as well as his own compositions. In addition, Jusid has performed with worldwide renowned leading orchestras such as the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra, the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, the Paris Sinfonietta, the Galician Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish National Radio Orchestra, to name a few.