Michael R. Davis, here is a short biography of Mexican Cellist Carlos Prieto. I hope that it is alright to post it. If you have a problem or suggestion, please let me know about it! I will apreciate constructive criticism very much. Carlos Prieto (Cellist and writer) Born in 1937 in Mexico City. Carlos Prieto is Mexicos most famous and respected cellist. Born and raised in Mexico City, and later studied at the engineering and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) his Stradivarius Cello is well known as Cello Prieto or the Piatti (because of Carlo Alfredo Piatti). He began his Cello studies at age four and later continued his studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and much later in New York City. Carlos Prieto has performed with many international orchestras in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He has performed many composers, from Bach, Händel, Saint-Saens, Boccherini and Rachmaninov to Shostakovich, Kodaly, Fauré and Samuel Zyman. He is not only known for being a Cellist but also for being an intelectual and writer. He has written interesting books, his most famous one is The Adventures of a Cello: History and memories” (Las Aventuras de un Violonchelo: Historia y Recuerdos) in which I highly recommend it. This is one of my favorite books because it has two things that I absolutely love, literature and music. I recommend this book to everyone who loves music and literature, or history of musical instruments and history of music. He not only wrote this book about his cello, “The Adventures of a Cello: History and memories”. He also wrote other books like “5000 Years of Words: A History of Languages”, By the millenary China and “From the USSR to Russia, Three Decades of the Experiences and Observations of a Witness”. His most recent book is about Shostakovich: Dmitri Shostakovich, Genius and drama. He speaks several languages like English, Russian, French and Portuguese and that’s the reason why he wrote “5000 Years of Words”, a history of languages, this book tells about his other passion, the languages and words. His son is Carlos Miguel Prieto and he is the principal Orchestra Conductor of the National Orchestra of Mexico City. In The Adventures of a Cello, Mr. Prieto recounts the adventurous life of his beloved “Piatti”, tracing its history through each of its previous owners from Stradivari in 1720 to himself. The “Piatti Cello” has lived in many different places and countries in more of 300 years, from old Europe, to modern Mexico. Carlos Prieto also describes his noteworthy experiences of playing the “Piatti” cello. And as the book starts: “In 1720, a violoncello known as “the Piatti,” one of the main protagonists of this book, was born in Cremona, Italy. Created by Antonio Stradivarius, it has undergone peaceful, turbulent and tragic periods for over the past 300 years”. The “Piatti” cello was present in the historical premier of a concert of Franz Joseph Haydn. And also, for example, the book tells the interesting story on how Francesco Mendelssohn, one of Felix Mendelssohn’s descendents and who was the owner of the “Piatti”in the early 20th century, save “The Piatti” from being burned because the Mendelssohn family were Jewish and in those difficult and dark times, the Nazis started to burn all the things that belong to the Jewish people. Carlos Prieto tells how Francesco Mendelssohn scaped from Germany to the United States with the Cello. And Mr. Prieto also covers, in particular, one of the subjects that has interested him more passionately in the last 15 years: the promotion of Mexican classical music and from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries from both sides of the Atlantic. Carlos Prieto also tells in this book about his interesting relationships with many illustrious personalities, including Russian composers Igor Stravinsky and Dmitri Shostakovich, cellists Pablo Casals, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma and writer and novelist Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature. For example, in this book, Carlos Prieto tells a lot about his great friendship with Yo-Yo Ma and funny anecdotes with him because Yo-Yo Ma also has a Cello Stradivarius and they made “funny” jokes about having experiments with their Stradivarius cellos. This book includes a CD of fourteen recordings by Carlos Prieto, including works by J. S. Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich, Astor Piazzolla, and Eugenio Toussaint. This book has been translated into several languages. It has an English edition. There are also two editions in Russian and Portuguese. Finally, he has the tradition, in his family, of the Prieto String Quartet. The first Prieto String Quartet was formed 80 years ago by his grandparents and the current Prieto String Quartet (composed of Mr. Carlos Prieto, his brother Juan Luis, his son Carlos Miguel and his nephew, Juan Luis Prieto R.) play regularly in Mexico and Europe. (Note: the grandchildren of Carlos Prieto are now studying String instruments to make the new generation of the Prieto String Quartet.) The January 1998 issue of Strings magazine devoted a cover article to Carlos Prieto calling him a “Renaissance Man” and examining “his astoundingly rich life as a performer, author, globe-trotter and tireless promoter of Latin composers.” In 1995 he received the Mozart Medal from the Austrian Ambassador in Mexico. He is, since 1995, Chairman of the Foundation of the Conservatory of Las Rosas, the oldest conservatory of the Americas and Mexico’s most ambitious music education project. France awarded him the Order of the Arts and Letters in the grade of Officer in 1999. Also in 1999 he received the Achievement Award of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York. In October of 2001, the University of Indiana honored Mr. Prieto with the Eva Janzer Award, entitled “Chevalier du Violoncelle” in recognition of his “exceptional contribution to the world of cello playing.” In September of 2002, the School of Music of Yale University honored him with the Cultural Leadership Citation. In 2004, he was appointed Honorary Member of the Fine Arts Advisory Council of the University of Texas at Austin. Every three years, the National Council for the Arts of Mexico and the Las Rosas Conservatory organize the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, so named in recognition of his career and his work in the promotion and enrichment of cello music. This is the only video that I found of Maestro Prieto performing Bach cello suite no.1. https://youtube/watch?v=8APzNhILYEM
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 05:58:46 +0000