Owner of a unique sound on the double bass, Victor Gonzalez aims to be one of the most sought-after musicians playing in Boston. He is an instrumentalist with a special connection to his bass.  He feels as if his bass were an extension of his own body. With this connection, Victor aims to create and play a wide variety of musical styles, colors, and techniques.

 “I began studying music when I was 18 years old, and for quite a while I felt guilty about starting my musical career so late. But now 13 years have gone by since that first moment of picking up a double bass. Now I feel that it was a huge advantage,” Victor says describing his musical beginnings. “I think that all of my experiences throughout the years have helped me better understand music as something organic, as something more natural.”

 Born in Rancagua, Chile, Victor began taking classical music classes in his last year of high school with Maestro Santiago Espinoza at the Cultural Center of Rancagua. A few short months later, Victor became part of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the city.

  Victor doesn’t come from a family of musicians. In fact, no one in his family even plays an instrument. “I feel that my family indirectly contributed to my formation as a musician. My grandmother was my first music teacher. Each summer I traveled to her house, and she loved music. Everyday I would listen to a total of six hours of Tango nonstop with her on the kitchen radio. When I got older, those melodies in my subconsciousness helped me play and make music in a natural way.”

During his time with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Rancagua, Victor played in a series of concerts in different cities throughout the country. Later on, Victor founded the Rancagua Quartet, which was invited to play for Ricardo Lagos, the president of Chile.

“Studying performance is not easy; you have to believe in yourself everyday. When I first began studying at the music conservatory of the University of Chile, I had only been playing for a month, and one day my double bass teacher said that the best thing I could do for myself was to change instruments.” In 2004, Victor left the University of Chile and was awarded a scholarship to attend the Catholic University of Chile, where he studied under maestro Jose Miguel Reyes Salgado.

The next year Victor auditioned for the Queen Sofia’s Superior School

of Music in Madrid, one of the most important and rigorous schools

of classical music in the world. Victor won one of only two slots available internationally in the double bass department at the school. Victor went on to win a full tuition scholarship from the Carolina Foundation, which awards promising and talented Latin American students scholarships. He also received a scholarship from the Albeniz Foundation of Spain.

At the Queen Sofia’s school, Victor studied with maestros Duncan McTier and Tony Garcia Araque. Victor finished his studies in two years with the highest grades and excellent recommendations from his teachers.

In 2011 Victor arrived to Boston and after only a few weeks in this new city, he won an audition to join the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. One month later he was invited as a ringer to play with the New England Philharmonic. In 2013 he won an audition to play with the Mercury Symphony Orchestra in their summer concert. Later Victor won the audition to be a full member of the Boston Civic Orchestra.

“Before being accepted to Berklee, I didn’t know anything about Jazz other than that I liked to listen to it, and other styles of music, but I’d never played any of those alternative styles. It was difficult at first, but I feel that having come to study at Berklee was the best decision I could have made.”

In 2015, Victor and his group China Fusion Styles participated in a tour throughout China and Taiwan after having been invited by the American-China Association. In June 2016, Victor will be going on a tour around Mexico playing music theater.

Victor Gonzalez is an artist who works to continue to expand his musical abilities and styles. In each one of his melodies he strive to add color, and his sounds create a mix of the many different places and musical experiences he understands on his instrument, the double bass. Victor is an artisan whose purpose is to give life to inert notes that tell a story as they float through the air. His professional goals are to develop a technique that combines jazz and classical music, and to share and teach everything he has learned through years of study to other young musicians.