manhattan school of music cello repertoire

Performing regularly in public from a very early age, he caught the attention of Yehudi Menuhin, who invited him to play under his conducting in Paris and Prague, which gave a considerable boost to his international career. He started at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris at the age of thirteen a pupil of Philippe Muller and Maurice Gendron, he was unanimously awarded the First Prize. Besides her activities for the Casals Foundation, Marta Casals Istomin is on the Board of all the main cultural institutions of Puerto Rico, of the Marlboro Festival, the Manhattan School of Music, the Kronberg Academy and The Nippon Music Foundation. The governments of Spain, France, Germany and Catalonia have decorated her with their highest civilian honors. In 2015, she was awarded the Living Legend Award by the Library of Congress in Washington. From 1980 to 1991, she was Artistic Director of the Kennedy Center in Washington. She was President of the Manhattan School of Music in New York from 1992 to 2005, General Director of the Rencontres Musicales d’Evian (1990-97) and a member of the National Council on the Arts (1990-1997). She taught cello at the Conservatory of Puerto Rico and was visiting cello professor at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She was married to Pablo Casals from 1957-1973, and to the American pianist Eugene Istomin from 1975-2003. After her first music studies in Puerto Rico, she was awarded a scholarship to study cello at New York’s Mannes School of Music.

Marta Casals Istomin was born in Puerto Rico to a family of amateur musicians. He is an artist in residence at both the Philharmonie de Paris and the Wiener Konzerthaus. This season sees him perform with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. His current projects include collaborations with Lera Auerbach, Richard Dubugnon, Danny Elfman, and Thierry Escaich. Devoted to exploring and expanding the cello repertoire, he performs a large range of pieces and new works every year. During the summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Gautier Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across France with his musical odyssey, Un été en France. This year, he launched his own foundation to support talented young musicians at the beginning of their careers, and to increase his engagement with young artists. He performs internationally with many leading conductors and instrumentalists and is the founder and leader of the ‘Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle’ at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and a passionate ambassador for the Association Orchestre à l’École, which introduces thousands of children to classical music in schools throughout France. Gautier Capuçon is a true twenty-first century ambassador for the cello. From 2004 to 2014, he was the artistic director of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. From 1995 to 2004 he was the regular conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Brussels Conservatory, where he taught chamber music for many years (1970-1994) and served as director (1994-2003). He has performed with many famous soloists, including Igor Oistrakh, José Van Dam, Murray Perahia, and Augustin Dumay. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the major Belgian orchestras as well as with symphony orchestras in the United States of America, Argentina, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. Starting in 1970, he conducted the Flemish Chamber Orchestra, both in Belgium and abroad. He also studied conducting under Bruno Maderna in Salzburg and under Pierre Boulez in Switzerland. Two years later, he came joint first in the Prague International Bassoon Contest. Following a competition, he was appointed bassoon soloist of the Belgian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. He completed his higher education at the Brussels Conservatory in music theory, bassoon, chamber music, and orchestral conducting. He took up the violin at the age of four. Arie Van Lysebeth was the President of the Jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition from 1996 to 2018.

Manhattan school of music cello repertoire