Assistant Professor Assistant Professor
Filipe Leitao is Assistant Professor at VCUarts, teaching and developing a new collaborative curriculum in Composition and Sound Design for Cinema, Games, and Motion Media. He recently served as an Instructor of Composition at the University of Alabama, where he received his doctorate in Composition. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Music Production and Sound Design for Visual Media at the Academy of Art University (San Francisco, CA), and a Bachelor in Art Education in Brazil, where he served as an Assistant Professor at the Federal University of Pará and taught keyboard and music technology.
Dr. Leitao has collaborated with many artists, creating original compositions and sound design for films and video games, as well as has written concert pieces for varied ensembles. Filipe Leitao’s works reflect his unique voice originated from a mix of classical music, popular music, Brazilian music, and film music, and has been recognized at both national and international levels, and obtained prizes and performances on renowned film and music festivals. He has taught composition lessons, orchestration, and music production, and mentored students composing tonal and non-tonal music, electronic music, popular music, video game music, and music for film, including teaching digital audio workstations (DAWs).