Pau Casals Museum: Concerts from the project “The Sound of Pau Casals”
Cultural activities in El Vendrell junio 19, 2025
Concerts in the Music Room of the Pau Casals Museu
The
wonderful Music Room at the Pau Casals Museum in Sant Salvador (El Vendrell –
Tarragona – Catalonia – Spain) was the stage for three music recitals on 22,
23, and 24 May, as part of the project “The Sound of Pau Casals”
The
project is led by the Complutense University of Madrid, the Scientific
Institute of Musical Sciences with the collaboration of the Pau Casals
Foundation.
Financial
support has been provided by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and
Universities and the State Research Agency (with co-financing from the European
Union).
The
concerts have been a high-level intellectual and emotional experience thanks to
the research and the performers.
At
each concert, we had the pleasure of hearing brief explanations from the
cellists about their personal connection to Pau Casals and his work. All of
them expressed their deep admiration and respect for the Maestro, both for his
musical contributions and for his human values.
Each
programme offered us the opportunity to learn about the evolution of Pau
Casals’ music between 1893 and 1917, both as a composer and in his choice of
works to perform.
The concert on the 22nd
Núria Ballester, director of the Pau Casals Museum, opened the event and introduced Miguel Ángel Ríos, representative of the Scientific Institute of Music Sciences. He apologised on behalf Ana Llorens, the project director, for not being able to attend the event, although she would have liked to.
Miguel
Ángel Ríos
highlighted the quantity, quality and magnificent preservation of Pau Casals'
archive of documents. In fact, he stated that it was one of the most
outstanding in the world. All the documentation and recordings that comprise it
are deposited in the National Archive of Catalonia.
Recordings
by Pau Casals that were not previously included in the archive have been added
to this collection on a deposit basis and have been acquired as part of the
project.
Ríos
highlighted the work of the National Archive of Catalonia for the excellent
conservation, management and preservation of the material it contains.
He
also highlighted that Pau Casals was one of the pioneers in recording his
performances on disc. These recordings were intended to facilitate the study of
his sound. For Ríos, Casals' sound was revolutionary because it changed the way
the cello was played and, with it, the sound of the instrument. The main purpose of the project was to
understand that sound by studying the recordings and reading and analysing the
correspondence (which is enormous in volume) and other documents in the
archive.
Ana
Llorens has reconstructed the concerts that Pau Casals gave throughout his
life, consulting letters, press clippings, concert programmes, etc.
The programme for the concert on the 22nd
All
the pieces were compositions by Pau Casals for cello and piano.
(Each
title includes a link to YouTube with a recording by Lluís Claret of the same
work but recorded several years ago).
Pastoral (1893)
Rêverie (1896)
Full d’àlbum (1897)
Romanza (1899)
Poème (1917)
Lluís
Claret explained to us that 51 years ago he had played in that same hall for
the museum's opening.
Claret
knew Pau Casals very well because Casals was a close friend of his father's, and he was also his godfather, Claret visited his home in Prada many times, and
because Enric Casals, Pau Casals' brother, was Lluís Claret's teacher, even
though he was a violinist. (Claret has
repeatedly claimed throughout his career that Enric Casals deserves greater
recognition for his musical qualities because Pau Casals' shadow has prevented
him from being given the place he truly deserves).
Claret
also shared memories of his childhood, watching and listening to Pau Casals
play at his home in Prada. The way he described it made those of us in the
music room feel as if we were seeing those scenes ourselves.
Claret
also announced that he, together with pianist Àlex Ramírez, will be making a
new recording of the pieces that made up the concert. In my opinion, that will be a delight for
classical music lovers.
Àlex
Ramírez is a pianist born in Barcelona. His main teachers were Margarita Serrat
and Josep Colom. He also took classes from Alicia de Larrocha and Bernard
Greenhouse, among others. He is a founding member of the Trio Da Vinci. As a
soloist, he has performed with the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès, among
others.
He
has participated in numerous concerts
and festivals, such as the Santander International Festival, the Gran Teatre
del Liceu (Barcelona) and the Quincena Musical Donostiarra, as well as in
theatres in Denmark and France.
Àlex Ramírez is a professor at the Liceu Conservatory and since 2016 has been invited to collaborate in the summer academy and the Bergen Festival in the Netherlands
The concert on the 23nd
Iagoba Fanlo (cellist) -Inja
Stanović (piano)
Both had participated in the presentation of the project at Complutense University last February. You'll find more information about them in the chapter on project committees, a few paragraphs later.
Iagoba Fanlo moved us with his performance and also
with his explanations about his childhood experiences with his father, also a
cellist, when they listened together to Pau Casals’ records, which were treated
with care and almost reverence; and how important this whole experience and his
admiration for Pau Casals was in his decision to become a cellist himself.
He performed Bach's Suite No. 3 with his eyes closed
the entire time, focused and truly devoted to the music, which we could see
reflected on his face. After the concert, some of us attendees were talking
among ourselves, and we commented on the emotion we had felt during the
concert. It should be noted that we all knew each other, we had seen each other
before because we are loyal followers of the classical music concerts organised
in Vendrell.
Inja Stanović is a Croatian pianist, who performed the pieces in the concert in a delightful manner
The programme for the concert on the 23nd
A programme featuring the three Bs: Beethoven, Bach,
and Brahms, three composers much loved by Casals. And as Iagoba Fanlo told us,
‘the Maestro had very good taste’.
Fanlo expresses his admiration for Casals in his cello
playing, as well as in his words, which the Pau Casals Foundation wrote in one
of its Instagram stories:
‘Pau Casals' inspiration on a musical and personal
level is a benchmark that is difficult to find in the history of humanity...
Being here, in his home, the house he had to give up [for coherence] with his
ideas, is frankly very touching.’
The concert on the 24nd
The
last concert was given by the Duo Cassadò: Damián Martínez (cellist) and
Marta Moll (piano).
We
can define Damián Martínez's style of performance in two words: ‘sensitivity’
and ‘delicacy’. And the concert on the 24th confirmed this once
again, and in this case we can add the difficulty, technical demands and
emotional charge of the music.
Bach’s
Suite No 2, played from memory almost entirely with his eyes closed, and indeed
the entire concert, gave us an almost religious feeling, even more so because
we were in the music room created by Casals, a place where he played on
numerous occasions with his friends.
Damián Martínez, as a performer, has given numerous concerts and tours, including performances with Natalia Gutman and Mischa Maisky. He holds degrees from the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Indiana University School of Music (USA) and the Musikhochshule Stuttgard (Germany).
Marta Moll has won numerous awards and has participated in many concerts. She is the creator, scriptwriter, and host of the television program ‘Path of Music' (Caminos de Música) on RTVE's La2 channel (Spain).
The programme for the concert on the 24nd
The
programme was a reconstruction of a concert given by Casals in 1910.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). Cello Suite No. 2 in D
minor, BWV 1008
Pietro Locatelli (1695 – 1764). Sonata for cello and
piano in D major.
Luigi Boccherini (1743 – 1805). Sonata for cello and piano No.
6 in A major. "Adagio & Allegro"
Emmanuel Moór (1863 – 1931). Prelude
It would be wonderful to repeat the experience of these concerts.
The project ‘The Sound of Pau Casals’
The project ‘The Sound of Pau Casals’
was
presented on 5 February at the Complutense University of Madrid.
This
project is a pioneering work that seeks to uncover the secrets of ‘Pau Casals'
sound’.
The
investigation began on 9 September 2022 and will end on 31 August 2025. It has
the financial support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
The grant amounts to €43,076.
The
basis of the work is that they consider Pau Casals as the father of the modern
cello and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.
The
research is being conducted by the Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences
(ICCMU), and is directed by Ana Llorens, who is a professor and cellist.
The
ICCMU is a centre dedicated to scientific research and the preservation of
Hispanic musical heritage. It is a centre affiliated with the Complutense
University of Madrid.
The
project has also benefited from the collaboration of the Pau Casals Foundation.
One
of the objectives of the research is to present the key elements of the
research on stage, with cellists and chamber musicians, and to attempt to
recreate the sound of Pau Casals.
To
understand the characteristics of Pau Casals' sound, researchers studied nearly
a hundred recordings. They used digitisation and sound analysis techniques, as
well as comparing different editions and remastering, as they believed that
technology could influence human perception of sound.
With
all this information, it is possible to assess Pau Casals' musical thinking and
sound aesthetics. The final and equally important objective is to promote the
creation of a community for the study of musical performance and to promote it
as a scientific discipline in Spain.
Finally,
on 6 and 7 February, a series of sessions were held at the Faculty of Geography
and History of the Complutense University of Madrid, featuring recitals and
lectures, as well as a combination of both, with the participation of renowned
specialists.
The topics covered in the sessions and the musicians and researchers who participated
Casals at Marlboro
Dr.
Bernard Meillat. (Pau
Casals Foundations)
Pianist
and Doctor of Musicology. His doctoral thesis was entitled ‘Debussy and the
Symbolist Poets’. He also has a background in Humanities (French Literature and
Ancient Languages). He is an advisor to the Pau Casals Foundation. He was a
member of the music department for the film about Pau Casals, ‘Pablo, the Power
of Silence’ (2017). Member of the Scientific Committee for these conferences.
Pau in Paris
Laura
Granero
Pianist,
fortepianist, harpsichordist, and researcher. She is currently working on her
PhD at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, focusing on
historical piano rolls and the connections between Clara Schumann's former
students. She is pursuing her scholarship with a grant for excellence awarded
by the La Caixa Foundation. She studied piano with Claudio Martínez-Mehner and
harpsichord with Pilar Montoya and Jorge García and later studied fortepiano
and harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis. She is co-director of
the project ‘La Nouvelle Athènes, Centre des pianos romantiques’. This
entity offers classes and concerts as part of its objectives. She has
performed in concert at the Santander International Festival, the San Sebastián
Music Fortnight, and the Juan March Foundation, among others. She has also
given lectures at the University of Sydney, the Hochschule der Künste Bern,
and the conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the Royal Conservatory
of Music in Madrid.
Dr.
Aldo Mata
Cellist.
He studied at the Reina Sofía School and received master classes from
Rostropovich and Greenhouse, among others. Doctor of Music. His doctoral thesis
was on Mozart's Prussian Quartets. He is a professor at the Manuel Castillo
Conservatory in Seville and a teacher at the Katarina Gurska Higher Music
Centre in Madrid (CSKG). He has won several competitions, such as the
Fulbright, Popper, and the permanent national competition of Juventudes
Musicales. He has participated in festivals in Brazil, Japan, the United
States, and elsewhere.
Pau Casals and Catalan and Spanish composers in exile
Dr.
Eva Moreda Rodríguez.
(University of Glasgow)
Professor
of Musicology at the University of Glasgow. She received her doctorate from
Royal Holloway College, University of London. Her studies focus on the
political and cultural history of Spanish music in the 20th century in exile
and under the Franco regime. Among the books she has published is Music and
Exile in Francoist Spain. She has also written an essay on the recording of
Bacarisse's concerts by the Trío Arbós. She has been a member of the Organising
Committee of the Spanish Art Song and Zarzuela Festival in London since 2014.
Member of the Scientific Committee of these conferences.
The Belgian network of Pablo Casals
Jan
Dewilde
Musicologist
from the University of Leuven. Librarian at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp
(Belgium) since 2004. Since 1998, he has been the coordinator of the Study
Centre for Flemish Music (Belgium). He is an expert in Flemish music. He is a
research assistant at the Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie of
the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature (Belgium) and at the Orpheus
Institute (Belgium).
As if he were not the same person: Schenker on Casals as cellist, conductor, and businessman
Dr.
Shanti Nachtergaele
He
graduated from Shenandoah Conservatory and earned a master's degree in early
music from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He received his doctorate from
McGill University. His doctoral thesis focused on the socio-material history of
the double bass (c. 1760–1890). He plays the double bass and the violone (an
instrument that could be described as a Baroque double bass).
Edward
Klorman
Violist.
He has given concerts at venues such as the Berkshire Bach Society. He specialises in tonal music and the relationship between musical analysis,
interpretation, and historical musicology. Professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's Mead Witter School of Music. He has also taught at the
Juilliard School in Manhattan (New York). His books include Bach's Cello Suites
and Mozart's Music of Friends. Social Interplay in the Chamber Works.
From Barcelona to Madrid: New reflections on Pablo Casals' stay in the capital (1893-1895)
Dr.
Miguel Ángel Ríos Muñoz.
(Complutense Institut of Musical Sciences)
He
holds a degree in musicology of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid
(graduation award and honours for ‘Casimiro Espino (1845 - 1898): melodies for
orchestra, a song without words’). He also holds a master's degree in Spanish
Music and Spanish and Latin American Music from the Complutense University of
Madrid. He has a PhD in musicology also from the Complutense University of
Madrid. His doctoral thesis is entitled ‘El Teatro Felipe (1885 - 1891):
Dramatic and musical practices of the theatre by the hour’. He participated in
the concerts held at the Pau Casals Museum from 22 to 24 May. He has published
numerous articles and book chapters. He has participated in several
conferences. Member of the Organising Committee of these conferences.
"Le maître et le centimaître" - Pau Casals and Rudolf von Tobel in Switzerland
Helga
Váradi
He
studied harpsichord at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna;
he has also studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in
Lyon and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Hochschule für Alte Musik.
He won the Gianni Bergarmo Prize for his harpsichord performance (2014). He has
carried out various research projects, one of which focused on Rudolf von Tobel
and Pau Casals, based on von Tobel's archives preserved in Bern. One of his
books is ‘La Maître et le centimaître. Rudolf von Tobel the devoted student in
service to the Maestro Pablo Casals’ (Rudolf von Tobel was a student of Casals
and remained loyal and admiring of the Maestro throughout his life). Since
2022, Váradi has been Head of Events and Special Projects at the Lucerne
Theatre and a member of the Rudolf von Tobel Foundation (Graffenried, Bern).
She is deeply committed to cultural exchange in Europe.
The origins of the 1950 Prades Festival
Andrea
Bravo Serrano.
(Complutense University of Madrid)
Cellist.
Musicologist. She has participated in research for the project ‘The Sound of
Pau Casals’. She has focused particularly on the humanistic and musical career
of Pau Casals and on the Prada Festival that bears his name.
Casals' Beethoven and Enbodied Responses
Dr.
Inja Stanović.
(University of Surrey)
Pianist
and musicologist. Specialist in early music recordings. Her research focuses on
historically informed performance practice and the study of wax cylinders and
early gramophone records. She participated in the concert at the Museu Pau
Casals on 23 May. Member of the Scientific Committee for these conferences.
From Casals to Morell: Comparison of Goltermann's Cantinella between the begining and the middle of the 20th century
Nieves
María Pelejero Ibáñez
Graduated
in History and Music Sciences from the University of La Rioja (2016). Advanced
Cello degree from the Joaquín Rodrigo Conservatory of Music (2017). Master's
degree in Cultural Project Management and Entrepreneurship from UNIR (2023).
Pau Casals' recording of Bach's cello suites: micro-scale shaping in the sarabandes
Dr.
Ana Llorens.
(Complutense University of Madrid)
PhD
in music from the University of Cambridge. Professor of Music Theory and
Analysis at the Complutense University of Madrid. Specialist in large-volume
analysis. Member of the board of directors of the Spanish Society of
Musicology. Principal investigator of the project "The Sound of Pau
Casals." Member of the Scientific Committee for these conferences.
Evolution of stereophonic sound in Pau Casals' recording
Dr.
Marco Antonio Juan de Dios Cuartas. (Complutense University of Madrid)
PhD
in Musicology. He holds a degree in History and Music Sciences from the
University of Oviedo and a first-class honors degree in Recording Arts from
Middlesex University, London. He is a member of the Spanish Society of
Musicology (SEdeM), and of the Society of Ethnomusicology, and a member of the
Society for Music Production Research (SMPR). He is currently an engineer in the
Spanish section of the Audio Engineering Society (AES). He participates in
conferences at the Complutense University of Madrid and is a member of the
Scientific Committee for these conferences.
The Pau Casals Fund, a fund to be explored
Dr.
Isaura Solé Boladeras
She
holds a degree in Art History from the University of Barcelona (UB). She also
holds a Master in Libraries and Heritage Collections from the UB. She also
holds a Master in Analysis and Evaluation of Works of Art from the University
of Lleida. She holds a PhD in Information and Communication from the UB, with
the thesis: "Ex fumo dare lucem. The configuration of the graphic
industry in Barcelona during the second half of the 19th century
(1845–1900)." She is a documentalist at the Pau Casals Foundation, where
she manages the documentary collections held at the National Archive of
Catalonia and the collections of the Pau Casals Museum.
Casals and the concept of music as living heritage
Dr.
Tiago de Oliveira Pinto
Musician,
anthropologist, and curator. He holds a PhD in musicology from the Free
University of Berlin (1990). He is a professor at the UNESCO Chair in
Transcultural Music Studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar,
Germany. Since 2024, he has represented the Krongert Academy in its
programs and projects on musical heritage. This institution is guided by the
humanistic ideas of Pau Casals. He was a visiting professor at Harvard
University, Kent State University (Ohio), and Fort Hare University (South
Africa), among others.
Music as propaganda: The reception of Pablo Casals in Japan and the Sinophone World during the Cold War
Dr.
Min-Erth Wang
A
PhD holder from the University of Oxford, his research focuses on East Asian
responses to Western art music during the 20th century. His thesis examines the
reception of this same Western music in Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong;
and the study of the reception of the music and thought of Pau Casals.
Latvian cultural reception of Pau Casals (1912 - 1977)
Dr.
Zane Prëdele
She
holds a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree in musicology from the Jāzeps
Vitols Latvian Academy of Music (Latvia). Her doctoral thesis was "Jāzeps
Vitols, His Dynamics in Cultural Memory: Canons and Archives." Since 2009, She has
been an archivist at the aforementioned School of Music. In 2015, She
joined the Centre for Scientific Research, also at the same music school, as a
researcher, and later directed the centre from 2017 to 2019. She is currently a
visiting professor at the same school.
Presentation of the edition of Enric Casals' suite for cello
Dr.
Iagoba Fanlo.
(Alfonso X El Sabio University)
He
holds a PhD in Arts and Humanities from the Rey Juan Carlos University. As a
cellist, he is a Golden Melómeno Award winner and was chosen to perform the
Elgar Concerto under Yehudi Menuhin with the Royal Academy in London. In 2009,
the Pau Casals Foundation asked him to perform an unpublished cello work by Pau
Casals, together with the Casals Quartet. He is a cello tutor for the European
Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO). He is the president of the Luigi Boccherini
Association.
Other members of the Scientific Committee without presentation of communications at the conference
Dr.
José Luis Besada. (Complutense
University of Madrid)
Doctoral
thesis on cognition and the methodology of analysis of contemporary musical
composition (extraordinary award). He holds a degree in Music from the Royal
Conservatory of Music of Madrid (RCSMM). He holds a degree in Mathematical
Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. He also holds a Master of
Arts and an extraordinary doctorate award from the Université Paris 8 des
Créations. Among many other degrees, he was an associate professor at the
Sorbonne in 2016. He is the author of numerous works, including the monograph
"Metamodels in Compositional Practices: The Case of Alberto Posadas'
Liturgia Fractal". His articles include "Organized Sound Tempo"
and "Perspectives of New Music". Between 2020 and 2023, he was a
member of the Societé Française d'Analyse Musicale. A founding member of the
Society for Musical Analysis and Theory (SATMUS), created in 2020, he is
currently secretary and director of the entity's journal Súmula. Between 2020
and 2023, he was editor of the art section of the Journal of Mathematics and
Music. He has been a contributor to Radio Clásica since 2017. His research
interests include: History and analysis of Western art music since 1970;
Cognition of the creative act in contemporary musical practices; and Cognitive
and mathematical aspects of music theory. He belongs to various research groups
and participates in several projects. One of the projects he has participated
in is DeepMusic: Digitizing the Musical Heritage Ecosystem. Spain: TED
2021-131738B-100 (2022-2024); IPs: Álvaro Torrente and Judith Ortega.
Dr. Adam Beham (Maynooth Univesity)
Musicologist.
Specializing in 20th-century Western music, he has studied different forms of
performance from a critical and empirical perspective. He is working on a
project on Irish popular music and liberalism during the late 20th century,
linking musicology, social history, and gender.
Other
members of the Organizing Committee:
Dr.
María Álvarez Villamil
(Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences)
Since
2020, she has been part of the R&D Project Manager team at the Complutense
University of Madrid.
Carlota
Martínez Escamilla
(Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences)
Member
of the research group "Spanish Music of the 19th and 20th Centuries."
The project ‘The Sound of Pau Casals’
was
presented on 5 February at the Complutense University of Madrid.
This
project is a pioneering work that seeks to uncover the secrets of ‘Pau Casals'
sound’.
The
investigation began on 9 September 2022 and will end on 31 August 2025. It has
the financial support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
The grant amounts to €43,076.
The
basis of the work is that they consider Pau Casals as the father of the modern
cello and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.
The
research is being conducted by the Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences
(ICCMU), and is directed by Ana Llorens, who is a professor and cellist.
The
ICCMU is a centre dedicated to scientific research and the preservation of
Hispanic musical heritage. It is a centre affiliated with the Complutense
University of Madrid.
The
project has also benefited from the collaboration of the Pau Casals Foundation.
One
of the objectives of the research is to present the key elements of the
research on stage, with cellists and chamber musicians, and to attempt to
recreate the sound of Pau Casals.
To
understand the characteristics of Pau Casals' sound, researchers studied nearly
a hundred recordings. They used digitisation and sound analysis techniques, as
well as comparing different editions and remastering, as they believed that
technology could influence human perception of sound.
With
all this information, it is possible to assess Pau Casals' musical thinking and
sound aesthetics. The final and equally important objective is to promote the
creation of a community for the study of musical performance and to promote it
as a scientific discipline in Spain.
Finally,
on 6 and 7 February, a series of sessions were held at the Faculty of Geography
and History of the Complutense University of Madrid, featuring recitals and
lectures, as well as a combination of both, with the participation of renowned
specialists.
The topics covered in the sessions and the musicians and researchers who participated
Casals at Marlboro
Dr.
Bernard Meillat. (Pau
Casals Foundations)
Pianist
and Doctor of Musicology. His doctoral thesis was entitled ‘Debussy and the
Symbolist Poets’. He also has a background in Humanities (French Literature and
Ancient Languages). He is an advisor to the Pau Casals Foundation. He was a
member of the music department for the film about Pau Casals, ‘Pablo, the Power
of Silence’ (2017). Member of the Scientific Committee for these conferences.
Pau in Paris
Laura Granero
Pianist,
fortepianist, harpsichordist, and researcher. She is currently working on her
PhD at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, focusing on
historical piano rolls and the connections between Clara Schumann's former
students. She is pursuing her scholarship with a grant for excellence awarded
by the La Caixa Foundation. She studied piano with Claudio Martínez-Mehner and
harpsichord with Pilar Montoya and Jorge García and later studied fortepiano
and harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis. She is co-director of
the project ‘La Nouvelle Athènes, Centre des pianos romantiques’. This
entity offers classes and concerts as part of its objectives. She has
performed in concert at the Santander International Festival, the San Sebastián
Music Fortnight, and the Juan March Foundation, among others. She has also
given lectures at the University of Sydney, the Hochschule der Künste Bern,
and the conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the Royal Conservatory
of Music in Madrid.
Dr.
Aldo Mata
Cellist.
He studied at the Reina Sofía School and received master classes from
Rostropovich and Greenhouse, among others. Doctor of Music. His doctoral thesis
was on Mozart's Prussian Quartets. He is a professor at the Manuel Castillo
Conservatory in Seville and a teacher at the Katarina Gurska Higher Music
Centre in Madrid (CSKG). He has won several competitions, such as the
Fulbright, Popper, and the permanent national competition of Juventudes
Musicales. He has participated in festivals in Brazil, Japan, the United
States, and elsewhere.
Pau Casals and Catalan and Spanish composers in exile
Dr. Eva Moreda Rodríguez. (University of Glasgow)
Professor
of Musicology at the University of Glasgow. She received her doctorate from
Royal Holloway College, University of London. Her studies focus on the
political and cultural history of Spanish music in the 20th century in exile
and under the Franco regime. Among the books she has published is Music and
Exile in Francoist Spain. She has also written an essay on the recording of
Bacarisse's concerts by the Trío Arbós. She has been a member of the Organising
Committee of the Spanish Art Song and Zarzuela Festival in London since 2014.
Member of the Scientific Committee of these conferences.
The Belgian network of Pablo Casals
Jan Dewilde
Musicologist
from the University of Leuven. Librarian at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp
(Belgium) since 2004. Since 1998, he has been the coordinator of the Study
Centre for Flemish Music (Belgium). He is an expert in Flemish music. He is a
research assistant at the Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie of
the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature (Belgium) and at the Orpheus
Institute (Belgium).
As if he were not the same person: Schenker on Casals as cellist, conductor, and businessman
Dr.
Shanti Nachtergaele
He
graduated from Shenandoah Conservatory and earned a master's degree in early
music from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He received his doctorate from
McGill University. His doctoral thesis focused on the socio-material history of
the double bass (c. 1760–1890). He plays the double bass and the violone (an
instrument that could be described as a Baroque double bass).
Edward Klorman
Violist.
He has given concerts at venues such as the Berkshire Bach Society. He specialises in tonal music and the relationship between musical analysis,
interpretation, and historical musicology. Professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's Mead Witter School of Music. He has also taught at the
Juilliard School in Manhattan (New York). His books include Bach's Cello Suites
and Mozart's Music of Friends. Social Interplay in the Chamber Works.
From Barcelona to Madrid: New reflections on Pablo Casals' stay in the capital (1893-1895)
Dr. Miguel Ángel Ríos Muñoz. (Complutense Institut of Musical Sciences)
He
holds a degree in musicology of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid
(graduation award and honours for ‘Casimiro Espino (1845 - 1898): melodies for
orchestra, a song without words’). He also holds a master's degree in Spanish
Music and Spanish and Latin American Music from the Complutense University of
Madrid. He has a PhD in musicology also from the Complutense University of
Madrid. His doctoral thesis is entitled ‘El Teatro Felipe (1885 - 1891):
Dramatic and musical practices of the theatre by the hour’. He participated in
the concerts held at the Pau Casals Museum from 22 to 24 May. He has published
numerous articles and book chapters. He has participated in several
conferences. Member of the Organising Committee of these conferences.
"Le maître et le centimaître" - Pau Casals and Rudolf von Tobel in Switzerland
Helga
Váradi
He
studied harpsichord at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna;
he has also studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in
Lyon and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Hochschule für Alte Musik.
He won the Gianni Bergarmo Prize for his harpsichord performance (2014). He has
carried out various research projects, one of which focused on Rudolf von Tobel
and Pau Casals, based on von Tobel's archives preserved in Bern. One of his
books is ‘La Maître et le centimaître. Rudolf von Tobel the devoted student in
service to the Maestro Pablo Casals’ (Rudolf von Tobel was a student of Casals
and remained loyal and admiring of the Maestro throughout his life). Since
2022, Váradi has been Head of Events and Special Projects at the Lucerne
Theatre and a member of the Rudolf von Tobel Foundation (Graffenried, Bern).
She is deeply committed to cultural exchange in Europe.
The origins of the 1950 Prades Festival
Andrea
Bravo Serrano.
(Complutense University of Madrid)
Cellist.
Musicologist. She has participated in research for the project ‘The Sound of
Pau Casals’. She has focused particularly on the humanistic and musical career
of Pau Casals and on the Prada Festival that bears his name.
Casals' Beethoven and Enbodied Responses
Dr.
Inja Stanović.
(University of Surrey)
Pianist
and musicologist. Specialist in early music recordings. Her research focuses on
historically informed performance practice and the study of wax cylinders and
early gramophone records. She participated in the concert at the Museu Pau
Casals on 23 May. Member of the Scientific Committee for these conferences.
From Casals to Morell: Comparison of Goltermann's Cantinella between the begining and the middle of the 20th century
Nieves María Pelejero Ibáñez
Graduated
in History and Music Sciences from the University of La Rioja (2016). Advanced
Cello degree from the Joaquín Rodrigo Conservatory of Music (2017). Master's
degree in Cultural Project Management and Entrepreneurship from UNIR (2023).
Pau Casals' recording of Bach's cello suites: micro-scale shaping in the sarabandes
Dr.
Ana Llorens.
(Complutense University of Madrid)
PhD
in music from the University of Cambridge. Professor of Music Theory and
Analysis at the Complutense University of Madrid. Specialist in large-volume
analysis. Member of the board of directors of the Spanish Society of
Musicology. Principal investigator of the project "The Sound of Pau
Casals." Member of the Scientific Committee for these conferences.
Evolution of stereophonic sound in Pau Casals' recording
Dr.
Marco Antonio Juan de Dios Cuartas. (Complutense University of Madrid)
PhD
in Musicology. He holds a degree in History and Music Sciences from the
University of Oviedo and a first-class honors degree in Recording Arts from
Middlesex University, London. He is a member of the Spanish Society of
Musicology (SEdeM), and of the Society of Ethnomusicology, and a member of the
Society for Music Production Research (SMPR). He is currently an engineer in the
Spanish section of the Audio Engineering Society (AES). He participates in
conferences at the Complutense University of Madrid and is a member of the
Scientific Committee for these conferences.
The Pau Casals Fund, a fund to be explored
Dr. Isaura Solé Boladeras
She
holds a degree in Art History from the University of Barcelona (UB). She also
holds a Master in Libraries and Heritage Collections from the UB. She also
holds a Master in Analysis and Evaluation of Works of Art from the University
of Lleida. She holds a PhD in Information and Communication from the UB, with
the thesis: "Ex fumo dare lucem. The configuration of the graphic
industry in Barcelona during the second half of the 19th century
(1845–1900)." She is a documentalist at the Pau Casals Foundation, where
she manages the documentary collections held at the National Archive of
Catalonia and the collections of the Pau Casals Museum.
Casals and the concept of music as living heritage
Dr.
Tiago de Oliveira Pinto
Musician,
anthropologist, and curator. He holds a PhD in musicology from the Free
University of Berlin (1990). He is a professor at the UNESCO Chair in
Transcultural Music Studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar,
Germany. Since 2024, he has represented the Krongert Academy in its
programs and projects on musical heritage. This institution is guided by the
humanistic ideas of Pau Casals. He was a visiting professor at Harvard
University, Kent State University (Ohio), and Fort Hare University (South
Africa), among others.
Music as propaganda: The reception of Pablo Casals in Japan and the Sinophone World during the Cold War
Dr.
Min-Erth Wang
A
PhD holder from the University of Oxford, his research focuses on East Asian
responses to Western art music during the 20th century. His thesis examines the
reception of this same Western music in Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong;
and the study of the reception of the music and thought of Pau Casals.
Latvian cultural reception of Pau Casals (1912 - 1977)
Dr.
Zane Prëdele
She
holds a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree in musicology from the Jāzeps
Vitols Latvian Academy of Music (Latvia). Her doctoral thesis was "Jāzeps
Vitols, His Dynamics in Cultural Memory: Canons and Archives." Since 2009, She has
been an archivist at the aforementioned School of Music. In 2015, She
joined the Centre for Scientific Research, also at the same music school, as a
researcher, and later directed the centre from 2017 to 2019. She is currently a
visiting professor at the same school.
Presentation of the edition of Enric Casals' suite for cello
Dr. Iagoba Fanlo. (Alfonso X El Sabio University)
He
holds a PhD in Arts and Humanities from the Rey Juan Carlos University. As a
cellist, he is a Golden Melómeno Award winner and was chosen to perform the
Elgar Concerto under Yehudi Menuhin with the Royal Academy in London. In 2009,
the Pau Casals Foundation asked him to perform an unpublished cello work by Pau
Casals, together with the Casals Quartet. He is a cello tutor for the European
Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO). He is the president of the Luigi Boccherini
Association.
Other members of the Scientific Committee without presentation of communications at the conference
Dr.
José Luis Besada. (Complutense
University of Madrid)
Doctoral
thesis on cognition and the methodology of analysis of contemporary musical
composition (extraordinary award). He holds a degree in Music from the Royal
Conservatory of Music of Madrid (RCSMM). He holds a degree in Mathematical
Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. He also holds a Master of
Arts and an extraordinary doctorate award from the Université Paris 8 des
Créations. Among many other degrees, he was an associate professor at the
Sorbonne in 2016. He is the author of numerous works, including the monograph
"Metamodels in Compositional Practices: The Case of Alberto Posadas'
Liturgia Fractal". His articles include "Organized Sound Tempo"
and "Perspectives of New Music". Between 2020 and 2023, he was a
member of the Societé Française d'Analyse Musicale. A founding member of the
Society for Musical Analysis and Theory (SATMUS), created in 2020, he is
currently secretary and director of the entity's journal Súmula. Between 2020
and 2023, he was editor of the art section of the Journal of Mathematics and
Music. He has been a contributor to Radio Clásica since 2017. His research
interests include: History and analysis of Western art music since 1970;
Cognition of the creative act in contemporary musical practices; and Cognitive
and mathematical aspects of music theory. He belongs to various research groups
and participates in several projects. One of the projects he has participated
in is DeepMusic: Digitizing the Musical Heritage Ecosystem. Spain: TED
2021-131738B-100 (2022-2024); IPs: Álvaro Torrente and Judith Ortega.
Dr. Adam Beham (Maynooth Univesity)
Musicologist.
Specializing in 20th-century Western music, he has studied different forms of
performance from a critical and empirical perspective. He is working on a
project on Irish popular music and liberalism during the late 20th century,
linking musicology, social history, and gender.
Other members of the Organizing Committee:
Dr. María Álvarez Villamil (Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences)
Since
2020, she has been part of the R&D Project Manager team at the Complutense
University of Madrid.
Carlota Martínez Escamilla (Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences)
Member
of the research group "Spanish Music of the 19th and 20th Centuries."
