Carlos Núñez Muñoz (born 1971) is a Spanish musician and multi-instrumentalist who plays the gaita, the traditional Galician bagpipe, Galician flute, ocarina, Irish flute, whistle and low whistle.
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Life and career
Nuñez was born in 1971 in Vigo, Galicia. He began playing the bagpipes when he was eight years old. In his early teens, he was invited to play with the Festival Orchestra of the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in Brittany. He studied the recorder at the Royal Conservatory in Madrid, Spain and quickly gained stature as a young virtuoso. He met Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains and performed with the band two years later, becoming referred to as the "7th member" of the band. He appeared on their Grammy-winning Santiago, which focused on Galician music and included other artists such as Los Lobos and Linda Ronstadt.
He has collaborated with Ry Cooder, Sharon Shannon, Sinéad O'Connor, The Chieftains, Altan and La Vieja Trova Santiaguera. He collaborated with Liam O'Flynn on The Piper's Call to perform Muiñeira de Poio / Muiñeira de Ourense. His most renowned album was 1996's A Irmandade Das Estrelas, which sold an unprecedented 100,000 copies, and included collaborations with Nightnoise, Luz Casal, Tino di Geraldo, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Kepa Junkera, Ry Cooder, The Chieftains, and Dulce Pontes. He also collaborated with Phamie Gow from Scotland.
He was a key collaborator in Tamiya Terashima's soundtrack for the film Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki), released in July 2006. He also released an additional album, titled Melodies from Gedo Senki, which included new Gedo Senki open source tracks (OST) along with new tunes by Carlos himself.