JP Jofre, Special Guest Artist
Winner of the prestigious 2026 Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, composer and bandoneónist Juan Pablo Jofre Romarion, known professionally as JP Jofre, is a GRAMMY® and Latin GRAMMY®-nominated artist of international stature. A native of Argentina and currently based between the United States and South Korea, Mr. Jofre has captivated audiences across four continents with his distinctive musical voice and deeply expressive performances. In demand as both a soloist and chamber musician, he has recorded and collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned artists and ensembles, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and United Strings of Europe.
A rare distinction among contemporary composer-performers, Mr. Jofre’s work extends well beyond his own performances: his compositions have been embraced and regularly programmed by leading artists and ensembles around the world. His music has been performed at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Los Angeles Music Center, the Teatro Morlacchi in Italy, the Mariinsky Theatre, Mikhailovsky Theatre and Stanislavsky Theatre in Russia, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Seoul Arts Center, and the National Theater in Taiwan, among others.
Mr. Jofre currently leads the JP Jofre Quintet, an ensemble that has toured internationally since the release of its album Manifiesto. Through both his work with the Quintet and his extensive career as a soloist and composer, he has developed a distinctive musical language that brings the bandoneón into contemporary Classical music while remaining deeply connected to his Argentine roots. Mr. Jofre began making music at the age of five and commenced formal musical studies at fifteen. He studied double bass with Néstor Castillo, harmony with Horacio Lavaise, and composition and orchestration with Ezequiel Viñao and Adrián Rusovich. He later participated in masterclasses with Ingrid Zur and George Heyer in Germany and studied bandoneón with Julio Pane, former bandoneónist of the legendary Astor Piazzolla Sextet.
As a composer, Mr. Jofre has received numerous commissions from internationally recognized institutions, ensembles, producers, and soloists, including MÜPA Budapest, Metropolis Ensemble, San Antonio Music Institute, producer Ted Viviani, violinists Itamar Zorman, Francisco Fullana, Kyung Sun Lee, Rachel Lee, Eric Silberger, Lucia Lin, Michael Guttman, and Yih Shuin Huang, pianists David Fung and Min Kwon, clarinetist Seunghee Lee, and cellist István Várdai, among others.
Mr. Jofre performs at CCCMF 2026 on October 16
