Carlos Cernadas is a Galician guitarist born in Santiago de Compostela in 1988. He was raised in the town of Rianxo and lived for three years in Lisbon, Portugal, where he began playing the guitar. After graduating from high school, he started a Fine Arts degree in Pontevedra, which he did not complete in order to dedicate himself to music. He worked for two years in a "verbena" orchestra, performing over 150 shows across Galicia, Asturias, and Castile and León, playing various musical genres such as rancheras, cumbias, pasodobles, waltzes, and pop/rock songs.
At the same time, he studied in Santiago de Compostela at the music school Estudio Escola de Música, where he took classes with Alberto Cereijo (guitar), Suso Atanes (harmony, arrangements, and improvisation), Iván Salgado (music production), Kike Albarado (ensemble), Leo Gianetto (vocals), Javier Constenla (piano), and LAR Legido (rhythmic training). During his time at this school, he received a scholarship from the AIE association for two consecutive years, recorded an EP, and performed with school bands at the well-known Santiago jazz venue Dado Dada, in addition to significantly improving his musical knowledge and experience. During his last two years at the school, he taught guitar to children and adults at the Cultural Center of Taragoña in Rianxo, thus beginning his teaching career.
After nearly five years at Estudio, he successfully applied for a place at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM) in London to study for a degree in Creative Musicianship. At this university, he took classes with John Wheatcroft, Svetlana Bassileva, Simone Tanda, Pete Wareham, Phil Short, Ronan McCullah, Steve Allsworth, Femi Temowo, Phil Baxter, Kostas Magdalinos, Adam Betts, Tom Herbert, and Marios Aristopoulos and James Wilkie, among others. During his second year, James Wilkie introduced him to the world of film music. In October 2018, he composed the score for his first short film, which won an award at the Raindance 48-Hour Film Challenge in London.
During his first two years in London, he performed at venues such as Nambucca, Under the Bridge, Water Rats, The Venue 229, Notting Hill Arts Club, Camden Market, and Zigfrid von Underbelly with Selin & The Band (Selin Gecit, Jan Simson, Chris Andrew, Andy Bar). The group was selected to perform at the university’s end-of-year showcase and reached the finals of the Coffee Music Project competition. In May 2018, they recorded an EP at Buffalo Studios, produced by Dustin Dooley.
He has performed in various cover and original bands, mainly rock, playing throughout Galicia (Spain). Some of these bands include: E.k.o.s (Spanish hard rock), Mustang (acoustic covers), Little Stones (rock covers), and The Bartenders (rock-pop covers in acoustic format).
Carlos is a guitar teacher. He is currently studying for a Master’s in Popular Music Performance at the ICMP (Institute of Contemporary Music Performance) in London.
