Adrian Varela

is a conductor, pedagogue, violinist, and composer who works in a number of different musical contexts.

Adrian conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in the first tour of a major orchestra to Mauritius in 2024, and regularly works with youth and amateur orchestras. He was the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Polish National Youth Orchestra POM LYO from 2015 to 2022.

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Adrian's primary conducting reference points are Maazel and Montenegro. He studied pedagogy, violin and performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London, later becoming the youngest concertmaster of Uruguay's National Symphony Orchestra. In 2002 he joined the Philharmonia Orchestra as 1st violinist, with whom he toured the world several times, and recorded dozens of film and games soundtracks.

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Adrian’s pedagogical approach seeks to make the students artistically and humanly independent as quickly as possible, through an integrated working knowledge of music-making at the top of the profession. His work with youth and youth orchestras has resulted in overwhelmingly successful projects in Japan, Germany, Uruguay, the UK, and Poland.