Sursa Family Concert
Organ
Goulding & Wood,
Opus 45
Sixth Season / 2011-2012
Sursa
Performance Hall / Music Instruction Building / Ball State University
Muncie,
Indiana
Raúl Prieto Ramírez
|
Recital: Master Class: |
|
www.concertartists.com/RPR.html www.raulprieto.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsGpNE4abY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3R9EC8UL3I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOzV41iwe-E |
Raúl
Prieto Ramírez’s career as an artist of international stature was confirmed when
he was appointed, at age of 27, as the first Organist-in-Residence at the
Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, Spain's national concert hall. Within
the first six months of his appointment he increased attendance at the hall's
organ recitals by a multiple of 30, and critics hailed him as one of the most
exciting talents in the music scene in Spain. He is now a full-time concert
organist with a busy global schedule that takes him to major Festivals and
Concert Halls - from the Mariinsky Theater and Moscow Concert Hall in Russia, to
Spivey Hall, Kotzschmar Organ Series and Methuen Memorial Music Hall in the USA,
and lectures for Indiana University, Ball State University, AGO Indianapolis and
the Celebrity Series in Huntsville, as well collaborations in summer academies
and recitals in Spain and throughout Europe.
Raul's special appeal to audiences and critics alike owes
much to his thrilling performances, given entirely from memory, which combine
dazzling virtuosity with great expressive power. His performances on YouTube are
enjoyed by an ever-growing international network of devotees. At his annual
recital on the largest organ in Catalonia, at the Basilica in Mataro, Spain, he
regularly draws an audience of over a thousand.
It all started when at the age of eleven Raúl became
fascinated by the sound of the organ in a local church and for the next five
years taught himself to play while pursuing all the information he could find
about the instrument in libraries. When he enrolled at Salamanca University to
study philosophy, he came across the ideas of the great conductor Sergiu
Celibidache and felt such a deep impact that he decided to devote his life to
music.
Raul studied piano with Leonid Sintsev at the Rimsky-Korsakov
Conservatory in St. Petersburg, organ with Ludgar Lohmann at the Hochschule für
Musik in Stuttgart (solistenklass), and he has participated in master classes
with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Lionel Rogg, Eric Lebrun, Szigmon Szathmáry,
and L. F. Tagliavini among others.
In addition to his solo performances, Raul has much
experience of the concert repertoire with the Spanish National Orchestra, the
National Spanish Choir and other major Spanish Symphony Orchestras under
international conductors. In 2008 he was the organist for, and an actor in, a
film featured at over 300 cinema festivals throughout the world.
In everything he does Raúl's passion is to raise the
appreciation and understanding of the organ as a musical instrument through
exciting performances, multi-media presentations, audience participation, and
use of the Internet. His first two compact disc releases on the 'Brilliant
Classics' label in 2011 were recorded at Milan Cathedral in Italy (Liszt, Reger,
Franck and Saint-Saëns) and at the famous modernist Palau de la Musica in
Barcelona (featuring Duo MusArt in piano & organ duets).
All
organ recital programs are free and open to the public.
Organ Events 2011-2012
Muncie Symphony Orchestra Guest Artist: Ann Sursa Carney, Saturday, October 15, 7:30 p.m.
Guest Artist: Raúl Prieto Ramírez, Thursday, March 15, 7:30 p.m.
Organ Events 2010-2011
Guest
Artist: Rubin Abdoullin,
dean, Conservatory of Music, Kazan, Russia, Tuesday, November 9, 7:30 p.m.
Junior Organ
Recital, Bahar Annadurdiyeva,
Monday, January 10, 5:30 p.m.
Senior Organ
Recital, Madelin Foster, Tuesday,
February 15, 5:30 p.m.
Ball State Concert
Choir, Andrew Crow, conductor,
including Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Kirby Koriath, organ, Friday, March 25, 7:30 p.m.
Guest Artist:
Paul Jacobs, Chair, Organ Department,
Juilliard School of Music, Sunday, April 17, 4:00 p.m.
Faculty Artist
Series: Kirby Koriath, organ, with
guest artist,
Kristi Koriath,
Sunday, June 12, 4:00 p.m.
Organ
Events 2009-2010
Guest Artist: Peter Richard Conte, Grand Court Organist, Wanamaker Organ, Philadelphia’s Macy’s department store, Sunday, January 24, 3:00 p.m.
New Music Festival,
Europa Fanfare for wind ensemble with organ, Charles Reader, conductor, Kirby
Koriath, organ, February 12.
Organ
Events 2008-2009
Guest artist: Rubin Abdoullin,
dean, Conservatory of Music, Kazan, Russia, Sunday, November 9, 3:00 p.m.
Guest artist: Karen Schneider-Kirner, Assistant Organist,
Basilica of the Sacred Heart, University of Notre Dame, Monday, March 16, 8:00
p.m.
Ball State Symphony
Orchestra, Bohuslav Rattay,
conductor, Kirby Koriath, organ -
Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, April 30.
Organ
Events 2007-2008
Guest artist: Samuel Porter, Sunday, October 14, 2007, 3:00 p.m.
Guest recital: Caroline Smith, soprano; Carla Edwards, organ, Sunday, November
11, 2007, 8:00 p.m.
Guest artist: Yoon-Mi Lim, Sunday, April 13, 2008, 3:00
p.m.
Inaugural
Organ Series 2006-2007
Ad from October 2006
TAO showing inaugural series.
Program copy
for James David Christie inaugural
recital, with Ann Sursa Carney, October 22 (This program includes the organ specification).
Program copy
for Kirby Koriath recital, Tuesday,
January 9, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Program copy
for Scott Montgomery recital,
Sunday, March 25, 2007, 4:00 p.m.
Photos
of the organ, Sursa Performance Hall, and the Music Instruction Building
Photos
by K. Koriath of Goulding & Wood, Opus 45, Sursa Performance Hall, Music
Instruction Building, Ball State University: balcony
side, floor center, rear balcony, console
Photo of Music Instruction Building, showing
the light painting, entitled First Symphony,
by Stephen Knapp
Driving directions to Ball State University, Campus map. The Music Instruction Building (MIB) is on the southeast corner of Riverside and McKinley, item #52 on the map. Best parking is in the parking structure directly south of the MIB, #58. Parking is free after 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday.
Kirby
L. Koriath, DMA
Professor Emeritus of Organ and Church Music
School
of Music
Ball
State University
Muncie,
IN 47306