Live & Commissions
Concert projects and commissioned music.
I put programmes together. I write and orchestrate for other people, and I produce records. Tell me what the occasion is and I’ll tell you what I can do with it.
Rooms I have played
- Cadogan Hall
- Jazz Cafe
- Barbican
- Southbank Centre
- Guildhall School of Music & Drama
- and others
What I take on
Five kinds of work. Most projects turn out to be two or three of them at once.
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Concert programmes
A programme built for the room and for the people who will be in it. Could be solo guitar, could be a band with strings. We settle that once I know the space.
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Original scores
Music written for film, dance, theatre and cultural projects. This is the work I most want to be doing.
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Arrangement and orchestration
Arranging other artists’ material, and writing string and horn parts. I studied conducting, so the score arrives ready to rehearse.
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Production and artistic direction
Producing records and directing sessions. Sometimes it turns into a longer stretch with one artist, on identity and repertoire.
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Institutions and cultural programmes
Workshops, residencies and longer projects with schools, universities and funded programmes.
The line-up follows the room, not the other way round.
Playing on my own and playing with a band and strings are two different jobs. They are not the expensive and the cheap version of the same thing. A bar asks for a kind of listening that a concert hall doesn’t.
That’s why I’d rather hear about the space before we talk about how many musicians. The room, how many people you expect, whether there is a PA, how much music you need. Then I put together what actually fits.
How it works
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We talk
The date, the room, and what the night is for. Most of what I need to know comes out in ten minutes.
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I put a proposal together
Line-up, programme and a price for that particular job. I don’t work from a rate card.
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Then the work happens
If it’s a concert, we rehearse and we play. If it’s a commission, you hear drafts before anything is final.
Clube da Esquina Anniversary, London.
The third time we staged the project in London, with Filó Machado as our guest. Strings, a full band and a full room.
It’s the clearest picture of what I do when a project has real size to it. Most of the work that reaches me now started with somebody watching that concert.
I’m Gui Tavares.
I studied Composition and Conducting at UNICAMP in São Paulo and have been working in London for twenty-three years. I perform, write, produce albums for other artists, and teach. I also research Brazilian musical traditions—with a focus on anthropology—which is where much of my repertoire comes from.
I prefer creating or participating in something original and creative over simply receiving a finished product. It takes longer, but it’s the part that a machine cannot authentically do for you.
Selected work
- Cool Jazz, Bossa and Be-Bop with StringsCadogan Hall London
- Clube da Esquina TributeThe Jazz Cafe London
- Noite Que Brincou de Lua albumFar Out Recordings, with Edu Passeto
- Amigos & Friends albumFeaturing major, internationally renowned icons of Brazilian music
- Brazilian Playground · Jazz PlaygroundPutumayo World Music
- Nossa VozLondon’s first Brazilian vocal group
- HemisphèrioReleased 14 May 2026
For institutions and cultural programmes
I work with schools, universities and cultural organisations on workshops, residencies and longer artistic projects, including funded ones.
Tell me about the project
What is your idea, your wish?
Describe it to me, and I will give it thoughtful consideration.
Or write straight to contact@guitavares.com