23festivalinternacionaldr.alfonsoortiztirado 2007 / Boletín No. 307 / Enero 11, 2007
Carlos Prieto and Edison Quintana
The cellist Carlos Prieto will receive the Medal Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, in the opening night of the 23rd International Festival Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado 2007, on Friday January 19th at 20:00 hours in Alamos’ City Hall accompanied by pianist Edison Quintana.
The selected program for the gala night is: Sonata op. 40 for violoncello and piano (1934): D. Shostakovich’s Allegro non troppo, Allegro Largo and Allegro; Tchaikovsky’s Variaciones sobre un Tema Rococó; Arturo Márquez’s Lejanía Interior para violonchelo y piano (piece dedicated to Carlos Prieto); Claude Bolling’s Barroco en Ritmo and Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango.
On Saturday 20th they will perform at Itson’s Theater Dr. Oscar Russo Voguel in Cajeme, and on Sunday 21st at the auditorium and theater “Profr. Romeo Gomez Aguilar” in Navojoa. Before starting both concerts scheduled for 20:00 hours Carlos Prieto will introduce his book “Adventures of a cellist”.
Carlos Prieto, cellist
Was born in Mexico City. At age of four he began studying cello. His teacher was the Hungarian cellist Imre Hartman, afterwards he studied with Pierre Fournier in Geneva and with Leonard Rose in New York.
He was for many years personal friend of Igor Stravinsky. When Stravinsky returned for the first time to Russia after 50 years of absence, Carlos Prieto who was studying in that country accompanied him during his historical residency in Moscow. He also met Shostakovich and has release his Concert No.1, Opus 107, in several cities from Mexico and Spain.
He has played with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin’s Symphony Orchestra, Spain’s National Orchestra, Spain’s Radio and Television Orchestras, Moscow’s Chamber Orchestra, San Petersburg’s Cameratta, American Symphony Orchestra, Ireland’s National Orchestra, Buenos Aires’ National Orchestra and many more. He has been invited to the most important worldwide theaters: the Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center of New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Roy Thomson in Toronto; Barbican Hall and Wigmore Hall of London; Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel of Paris; The Hall of San Petersburgo’s Philharmonic; Moscow’s Conservatory; Madrid’s National Auditorium; Europalia Festivals, Granada and Berlin.
Unanimous and excellent comments have received during his different tours for Europe, United States, Russia and the republics from the former Soviet Union; Canada, China, India and Latin America. The New York Times published an enthusiastic comment about his debut in the Carnegie Hall rating him as “cellist who doesn’t know about techniques restrictions and with perfect musical instincts”.
Carlos Prieto has enriched the cello repertoire exceptionally. Since 1980 he has played the world premieres of about 80 musical pieces, most of them devoted to him, of the main composers of Mexico, Ibero-America, Spain and other countries. His more recent releases are: the Concert of John Kinsella with Ireland’s National Orchestra in Dublin (2002); the concerts of Jose Luis Turina and Tomas Marco in San Petersburg and Mexico, respectively (2003); the Double Concert of Tomas Marco in Spain (2004). In September of 2005 he released Joaquin Gutierrez Heras’s la Fantasía Concertante with Huntsville Symphonic Orchestra, under the conduction of his son Carlos Miguel Prieto.
He has recorded more than 80 musical pieces: J. S. Bach’s Las Suites complete, Shostakovich’s pieces, Saint-Saens, Boccherini, Fauré, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Kodaly, Bruch, Martinu and a series with no precedent of eleven discs devoted to the music from Latin America and Spain, including numerous worldwide premieres.
Carlos Prieto has written six books: Cartas Rusas (Russian letters), Alrededor del mundo con el violonchelo (around the world with the cello), De la URSS a Rusia (From USSR to Russia), Las aventuras de un violonchelo (The adventures of a violoncello), Historias y Memorias (Stories and memories), Senderos e Imágenes de la Música (Path and images from music)and 5000 Años de palabras (5000 years of words).His book The adventures of a violoncello has been translated to Portuguese and Russian, and in 2006 it will be release the translation into English (University of Texas Press).
The year of 2005 was particularly active, he played in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In 1995, he received the “Mozart Medal” with Excellency from the Austrian Ambassador hands in Mexico. In 1999 received awards from the Cultural Institute of Mexico in New York, for his contribution to music and the cultural relationship of Mexico with this city; and from the French Government “The Order of the letters and Arts” in official degree.
In 2001 Carlos Prieto received from the University of Indiana the award Eva Janzer "Chevalier du Violoncelle”, for his “outstanding worldwide contribution to the art of violoncello”; in 2002 received the award to the University of Yale Cultural Leadership, for his musical work in the world; and in 2004 the University of Texas in Austin named him Honorary Member of their Advisory Council of the Fine Arts.
Every three years the Conservatory of las Rosas, and the National Council for the Culture and Arts in Mexico, organize the International Contest of Violoncello Carlos Prieto, named after him in recognition to his career and work of diffusion of violoncello music. (Source: http://www.carlosprieto.com)
Edison Quintana, pianist
With amazing melodiousness and perfect technical development, achieves the applause in the performance of pieces from the most diverse nature. In the same way approaches the vanguard music than the rhythms of jazz, the pieces for piano and orchestra from all times, and the Latin American folklore. His debut was at short age in Uruguay, his birth land. In the decade of the sixties he received several first places from Uruguayan and foreign institutions, and was pronounced “Pianist of the year” several occasions by the specialized critics. Edison Quintana made his first studies with teacher Hugo Balzo and kept studying thanks to diverse scholarships for piano improvement in Siena and Rumania. In Bucharest studied with George Halmos and was the last pupil of the famous teacher Florica Musicescu. He was favorite student of the distinguish pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and received the teachings of maestro Guido Agosti, obtaining in Siena the Diploma of merit.
During the years of residency in Europe, he alternate with famous like S. Wislocky, Howard Mitchell and Jose Iturbi, the ones who guided his studies. He was awarded in the International Contest of Leeds, England in 1966, and obtained first prize in the International Contest Beethoven in Mendoza, Argentina in 1970.
In Mexico, where he adopted the nationality, he has been soloist of all the orchestras in the country. Among his recordings is the first, worldwide, of the Hermilio Hernandez’s Concert; the first integral recording of the piece for piano from maestro Manuel de Elias and from Felipe Villanueva composer from Mexicali.
Edison Quintana is soloist of INBA and UNAM, for this institution he handles a repertoire of more than three hundred pieces for piano solo, piano and orchestra and small instrumental groups, and he is also in charge of the coordination of cycles like Jazz, Tangos and Latin American Rhythms. Holder of a scholarship from FONCA in the first promotion that supports the performers in the country and in 1996 the same institution gave him the scholarship of Cultural Projects and Co-investments.
He plays an average of hundred and twenty concerts per year, in Mexico, Latin America and Europe with very diverse programs like, chamber, recital and soloist. Recently he recorded the integral piece for piano of Rodolfo Halffter, a disc devoted to the Latin American music, and another one part of the work of the Mexican composer Manuel M. Ponce for piano solo; and a series of disc with the Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto, as well, devoted to the Ibero-American music for cello and piano.
On November 2000, Quintana was director and pianist in the release in Mexico of Astor Piazzolla’s pieces María de Buenos Aires, El hombre de la esquina rosada and El tango. In the Cervantino Festival 2002, he performed Shostakovich’s Concierto No. 1 with the Cameratta of Coahuila. He is guest professor of the Catholic University of Washington D. C. since 1999 and from the University of the South of Texas since 2001.
