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The Spanish harpsichrdist (and pianist), Ignacio Prego, graduated with high honors in the Padre Antonio Soler Conservatory in Madrid. He continued his studies in the USA with Luiz de Moura Castro and Emile Naoumoff. He then studied harpsichord at the Indiana University with Elisabeth Wright. In August 2012, he joined the ‘Historical Performance’ program at The Juilliard School in New York, studying with Kenneth Weiss and Richard Egarr, and working with visiting artists such as Jordi Savall, Harry Bicket, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Monica Huggett. He is recipient of the 2005 AECI Grant (International Cooperation Spanish Agency), the 2009 CajaMadrid Foundation Grant and the 2014 The English Concert-Harry Bicket Fellowship. He won First Prize winner at the 2012 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition.
Ignacio Prego has been described by the newspaper El Mundo as “…one of the most versatile Spanish musicians in the Classical scene…” He has performed in major cities in the USA, China, Japan, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Chile, Holland, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Peru, Bolivia and Canada, including important venues such as the National Gallery of Arts in Washington, D.C., the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the National Auditorium in Madrid, the Esplanade in Singapore and the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York.
Recent appearances include Ignacio Prego's debut with The English Concert and Harry Bicket playing J.S. Bach's F minor Harpsichord Concerto in New York. Also debuts in England with a solo recital at St. Martin in the Fields in London and in Berkeley, California, playing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988); concerts with the Portland Baroque Orchestra conducted by Monica Huggett playing as soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival, J.S. Bach's Harpsichord Concerti with Byron Schenkman & Friends in Seattle, a Japan/Singapore Concert Tour under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki, a concert conducted by Jordi Savall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, solo recitals at the National Gallery of Arts in Washington, D.C., the Cervantes Institute of Chicago, the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York and at the Westfield Continuo Conference in Tacoma, Washington. A live performance at the WQXR NY Public Radio as part of the Bach360 Festival, a presentation at the NYIT Auditorium for the New York Philharmonic Insight Series and recitals with recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger and cellist Phoebe Carrai at the Frick Collection in New York and The Mansion of Strathmore in Bethesda. He also performed at the Chiquitos Early Music Festival in Bolivia, at the XI Early Music Festival in Lima, Perú, and at the Symphonic Hall in León, Spain. In January, the WFMT Classical Radio devoted the full first edition of its new show hosted by Candice Agree, Baroque&Before, to Prego and his recital at the Latino Music Festival in Chicago.
In December 2014, Ignacio Prego released his second harpsichord solo CD under the Cantus Records label with the Complete French Suites (BWV 812-817) by J.S. Bach. His recording solo debut with Verso in 2012 entitled “Chromatic Fantasy” was also dedicated exclusively to the music of J.S. Bach. Scherzo Magazine hailed it as “outstanding mastery of Bach’s complex counterpoint architecture, overwhelming elegance and extraordinary control”; El Cultural-El Mundo described it as an “…outstanding performance…” and the Juilliard Journal referred to it as “heavenly harpsichord music”. As continuo player, he often collaborates with various ensembles, including Spain based ‘La Ritirata’, with whom he just published a DVD for Cantus Records and a CD for Glossa, Maurice Steger Trio, etc.
Ignacio Prego was Vocal Coach at Yale University: Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) in New Haven, Connecticut (September 2014-June 2015). He currently lives in Madrid, Spain. |
