Tomás Virgós

Tomás Virgós Navarro

My CV tends to confuse people a little.

The serious part

I trained as a classical pianist in Haro, where my first piano compositions were called Ocurrencias (“Whims”), and studied composition at the Zaragoza Conservatoire. Along the way I passed through the baroque organ and ended up in jazz and improvisation. I studied mechanical engineering at the University of Zaragoza, which is the longest possible route to sound, and then sound as well, at SAE, just in case.

I’ve written for symphony orchestra at the Auditorio de Zaragoza and spent several years teaching almost everything around music production (scoring for picture, recording, music technology) at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón, ECAM and TAI.

My first commissions came through the Dutch director Johan Kramer: films for Turkish Airlines with FC Barcelona and with Manchester United, Van der Sar included. And Félix Fernández de Castro used a lullaby of mine in his documentary María y yo.

Everything else

With my partners at Reseda Estudio, Pablo Serrano and Antón Serrats: the score for El Asesino de TikTok, several weeks in Netflix’s global top 10, the original music for all ten seasons of La isla de las tentaciones (the Spanish Temptation Island), Pocoyo season 5 and campaigns for Loewe and Gucci. On my own, the score for Paco León’s Rainbow, and campaigns for Jean Paul Gaultier. And when Björk withdrew the rights to her music for the stage version of Dancer in the Dark, someone had to write the new songs. No pressure.

I also go on stage: I was Amaral’s keyboard player from 2015 to 2024 and have played with Najwa Nimri, on tour and in the studio. And when I have time left over, I make music nobody commissioned, with Phonographe and The Fractal Sound.

My former teachers are coping reasonably well.

How I see it

A twenty-second spot can have more depth than an entire string quartet.

I have nothing against string quartets. But I stopped believing a long time ago that one genre is worth more than another. A samba can hold more than a symphony; a good tutorial, more than a masterclass. And sometimes it’s the other way round. What matters to me is that something happens to the listener. I’m terrible with labels; I only use them to understand the team.

How I work. I compose from sound: a timbre, a tiny edit or a mixing decision can weigh as much as the melody. I take whatever works from anywhere — electronica, the avant-garde or a village brass band — and check afterwards whether it fits. It usually does. Everything is more LEGO than it looks.

Where it’s been heard

Film & series

Television

Advertising & fashion

Animation & theatre

Stage

300 MYouTube views of videos with music by Reseda Estudio, the studio I run in Madrid with Pablo Serrano and Antón Serrats.

In the press