Felipe Lara was born in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1979. He began his musical career as a guitar player and shortly after started composing. In 1999 Lara received the European Tour Scholarship from Berklee College of Music, where he obtained his Bachelors Degree with Magna Cum Laude distinction, dual major in Musical Composition and Film Scoring in 2002. In addition to studies at Berklee with John Bavicchi and Vuk Kulenovich, Lara studied at the New England Conservatory with Alla Elana Cohen.

In 2004 Lara received his Masters in Composition and Theory from Tufts University where he studied with John McDonald. Additional studies include individual lessons with Brian Ferneyhough, Mario Davidovsky, Philippe Leroux, Philippe Manoury and David Rakowski, and master classes/lectures with Pierre Boulez, Michael Finnissy, Magnus Lindberg, Bernard Rands, Elliot Carter, and Donald Martino.

Lara has received awards such as the Youth Concerts at Symphony Hall, the Richard Levy Award, 1st prize in the MTNA award for the state of Massachusetts, the Eastern Division and the MTNA National Warner Brothers Award, four “Composer Assistance Award” from the AMC, three ASCAPplus awards,MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, finalist at the Robert Helps Competition, and the first price in  orchestra composition for the XVI Bienal da Musica Brasileira Contemporanea.

Lara's commissions include the New York New Music Ensemble, Duo Diorama, Philharmonic Society of Arlington, Brave New Works, Berkshire Symphony, the Beaudoin/Wade Duo, Jean Kopperud and Steve Gosling and others. Lara ’s music has been performed in many festivals including Wellesley Composers Conference, June-In-Buffalo, 26th New Music and Arts Festiva (Bowling Green), Atlantic Center for the Arts, Domaine Forget, Bienal da Musica Brasileira Contemporanea, Newport Festival, Festival de Musica Nova, among others.

Performers of Lara's music include the Arditti Quartet, Le Nouvel Ensemble Modern, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), New York New Music Ensemble, Radnofsky Saxophone Quartet, Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, Triple Helix, and the Julliard Pierrot Ensemble.

Felipe is currently a PhD student at NYU working with Louis Karchin, Mario Davidovsky, and Tristan Murail at Columbia University. Current projects include works and performances by Duo Diorama, New York New Music Ensemble, Amy Dissanayake, Berkshire Symphony, Due East, and ICE.