Yalil Guerra, PhD, is a skilled music composer and conductor with over three decades of experience working symphonic, chamber and popular music. Expert in music and sound editing software, with experience handling a wide variety of programs to compose, synthesize, and revise music. Able to play many different instruments, including guitar, piano, Cuban tres, bass, and Cuban percussion.
Capable of both transcription and transposition, possessing a strong background in music theory. Familiarity with a range of musical genres, with special experience in film, TV, and commercial scoring.
He has received much recognition from the Latin Grammy awards, he won Best Classical Contemporary Composition category for "Seducción" (2012), and he has received nominations for Best Classical Album for "Old Havana" (2010), "Works for String Orchestra" (2015), and “Cuba: The Legacy” (2019). In the category of Best Classical Composition he has received nominations for "String Quartet No.2" (2014), "El retrato de la paloma" (2015), and “String Quartet No. 3 In memoriam Ludwig van Beethoven" (2018).
He is a Cuba Disco Classical Album winner for “Cuba: The Legacy” (2022) and a nominee for Soundtrack Album: “Weekend in Havana” (PBS-USA), and for Classical Album: "Works for String Orchestra" (2015).
He won Second and Special Award at the Krakow International Guitar Contest in 1990, and has been awarded fellowships as the Winner of the Cintas Foundation Fellowship. Composition (2014), the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship (2017), the Lalo Schifrin Scholarship (2019), the Family Wise Scholarship (2020), the Runner-up Cintas Foundation Fellowship, and the Composition fellowship (2012).
He is a member of the The Recording Academy (GRAMMY), The Latin GRAMMY, ASCAP, SGAE, the National Association of Composers USA, and gthe International Conductors Guild. He is certified as an Avid Sibelius He has worked at College of the Canyons (2016 to present), Los Angeles College of Music (2021 to present), CSU Cal Pomona, Ventura College, University of La Verne, and Shepherd University.
He is the Founder of the GSO-Guerra String Orchestra, orchestra in residence at the St. Andrew Catholic Church in Pasadena, CA.
He holds degrees from University of California, Los Angeles (Doctor of Philosophy in Music), Shepherd University, Los Angeles (Master of Arts/ Film Scoring), Conservatorio Superior de Música. Madrid, Spain (Master of Arts. Classical Guitar) and Escuela Nacional de Artes, Havana, Cuba (Bachelor of Arts).