21st
ITURBI
INTERNATIONAL
PIANO
COMPETITION
VALÈNCIA
June 23 to July 2, 2021
Jorge Luis Prats
Since May 2007, when Jorge Luis Prats gave his first recital at the Miami International Piano Festival, his career has undergone a dramatic ascent. His debut recitals at the prestigious Meisterpianisten series at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam having been received with standing ovations, in 2010 he returned to the same series for the third time, an honor uniquely reserved for Brendel and Sokolov previously.
In May 2010 Jorge Luis replaced Nelson Freire at his Salle Pleyel recital, to a tremendously enthusiastic response from the public and in September of the same year he again triumphed at the festival “Piano aux Jacobins” in Toulouse. Following these successes, he has been invited by the organisers of several prestigious French series to perform in autumn 2011 the Grand Interpretes in Lyon, at the Grand Theatre de Ais en Provence, a re-invitation from the Piano 4 Étoiles series at Salle Pleyel and to perform Rakhmaninov with the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi.
Jorge Luis has toured Europe, Latin America, China, Japan and Korea and has played with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, etc. In Mexico, he has performed with the Mexico City Orchestra, the Ofunam Orchestra and the Jalapa Orchestra and in South America with the Columbia Philharmonic, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and Caracas Municipal Orchestra.
Regularly invited as professor by the respected institutions such as National University of Columbia in Bogota, National School of the Arts in Havana, the Arts Centre in Mexico, the Conservatory of Cordoba in Spain and Royal Conservatory in Toronto, he was also the artistic Director of National Orchestra of Cuba from 1985 to 2002.
Jorge Luis Prats was born in Camaguey in Cuba in 1956, studying with Cesar Perez Sentenar, Barbara Díaz Alea, Margot Rojas and Alfredo Diez at National School of Arts. On graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Mocow where he studied with Rudolf Kerer and he continued his studies at Conservatoire de Paris and later at the Hochschule für Musik and Künstler in Viena with Paul Badura Skoda and Magda Tagliaferro.
At 21 years old, Jorge Luis won the first prize at the prestigious Concours Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud in Paris as well as the special award of best interpretation of works by Ravel and Jolivet.
Jorge Luis Prats discography includes the first recording ever of Scriabin’s 24 Preludes, concerti by Beethoven, Grieg, Rachmaninov and Chopin as well as works by Cuban composers. His concert at Broward Center for the Performing Arts for the Miami’s International Piano Festival was recorded and released as DVD by VAI.
Jorge Luis has recently signed an exclusive recording contract with Decca and his first recording with them will be Granados by Goyescas, to be released in June 2011.