Rafael Leonardo Junchaya

Rafael Leonardo Junchaya Rojas (born September 19, 1965) is a Peruvian composer, conductor, and researcher.
Biography.
Junchaya was born in Lima, the son of physician/composer Rafael Junchaya Gómez.
He began his musical education at the age of seven, learning piano. Two years later he enrolled in the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (National Musical Conservatory of Peru) to study violin but did not finish. At the end of his secondary education, he entered the Faculty of Architecture at the National University of Engineering, but returned to the Conservatory in 1988 to major in composition. Studying under such professors as Enrique Iturriaga and Celso Garrido Lecca, Junchaya graduated in 2005 with a second specialty in composition teaching.
Junchaya has participated in master classes and workshops with Mario Lavista, Aurelio Tello and Cirilo Vila, among others. He studied conducting with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Eduardo García-Barrios, and also participated in workshops with David MacKenzie and Carlos Fernández Aransay between 2002 and 2003. In 1995 he travelled to New York City as a visiting student at Juilliard School.
He has been the assistant conductor, then principal conductor, of the Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música of Lima, and has led the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lima, the POV (Summer Orchestral Programme), and "La Filarmónica" orchestras. He has also attended workshops and seminars in musical research with Alfonso Padilla from the University of Helsinki.
Junchaya has been professor of Composition and Music History at the CNM and the Instituto de Arte of the Universidad San Martín de Porres. He is a founding member of Círculo de Composición del Perú (CIRCOMPER). He is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Helsinki.