Biographie des artistes
Biographie de Carlos Mena
Carlos Mena was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (1971). He studied at the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) in Basel (Switzerland) with his maestros Richard Levitt and René Jacobs. He also studied at the SCB medieval repertoire with Dominique Vellard and opera with Nicolau de Figueiredo.
He has sung for audiences around the world like: Kontzerthaus in Vienna, Berliner Philarmonie, Theatre Champs Elysees, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Alice Tully Hall of the MET in New York, Fisher Symphony Hall in Detroit, Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall and Opera City Hall in Tokyo, Osaka Symphony Hall, Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall in Melbourne among others under the direction of maestros as R. Jacobs, G. Leonhardt, P. Goodwin, M. Minkowsky, F. Biondi, E. Onofri, A. Bernardini, Ch. Coin, O. Dantone, A. Marcon, J. López-Cobos, R. Frübeck de Burgos, S. Weigle, M. Corboz, S. Young, M. Alsop, M. Haselböck, P. van Veldhoven, etc…
He has played the opera “Radamisto” (Radamisto rol) by Haendel with production of the Festival of Salzburg, at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg, at the Dortmund Kontzerthaus, at the Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Teatro Bellas Artes in Ciudad de México. Besides, he has sung “Orfeo” (Speranza) by Monteverdi at the Staatsoper in Berlin, “Il Trionfo” at the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, and “Europera 5” by J.Cage in the Festival of Flandes, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Oberon) by Britten in Teatro Real de Madrid, “Acanio in Alba” (Ascanio) by Mozart in Barbican Center in London, “Bajazet” by Vivaldi in Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao,“Viaje a Simorgh” in Teatro Real de Madrid and “Death in Venice” (Apollo) by Britten in Liceu de Barcelona,“Rinaldo” (Rinaldo) by Haendel in Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Johannes Passion by Bach in Chatelet Paris and “Il Primo Omicidio” by Scarlatti in Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao.
Among his 50 recitals recorded won prizes like “Diapason D’Or de l’Anné” as the best baroque recital of the year, “The Editor’s Choice” by Gramophon,“10” of Repertoire, the “Choc” of Le Monde, CD Compact as best Rennaisance CD of the year, Excepcional of Scherzo…
Carlos Mena is also deeply interested in the repertoire of the XX and XXI century: Strawinsky, Britten, Iglesias, Bernstein, Benjamin or Vaughn-Williams. Composers as Gabriel Erkoreka, Jose María Sánchez Verdú, Joan Magraner, Jesús Torres, Enric Palomar and Alberto Iglesias have composed works specifically for his voice.
Carlos Mena has also an important as orchestra conductor leading orchestras like Sinfonica de Portugal, Ciudad de Granada, Principado de Asturias, Sinfónica de Bilbao, Sinfónica de Galicia, ORTVE, Ciudad de Córdoba Barroca Catalana, Bachcelona Ensemble and Sinfónica de Navarra leading programs around composers like Bach, Haendel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Arriaga, Farrenc, Kodaly, Vaughn-Williams, Ravel, Debussy…
He has been invited as “guest artist” for complete seasons of Palais de Beaux Arts, Centro Nacional de Música and Orquesta Ciudad de Granada.
Carlos Mena is teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and at the Academy of Ancient Music in Salamanca University.
Biographie de Ignacio Prego
Described as one of the most important harpsichordists of his generation, Ignacio Prego is the founder and artistic director of Tiento Nuovo, a Madrid-based ensemble recently awarded the prestigious DIAPASON D’OR for their latest recording, Charles Avison: Concerti Grossi (Glossa 21).
Mr. Prego has established an intense performing career on both sides of the Atlantic, with concerts in the most important cities in North America, Asia, and in the vast majority of countries in Europe and South America. He recently made his harpsichord solo debut at the 2023 Utrecht Oude Muziek in the Netherlands. Other venues include Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection in New York, the National Gallery in Washington DC, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Esplanade in Singapore, the Palacio de Euskalduna in Bilbao and Teatro del Canal and the National Auditorium in Madrid; and early music festivals such as the ones in Berkeley, Boston, Seville (FeMAS), Vancouver, Chiquitos, Santander International Festival, FIAS, etc. He regularly collaborates with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, Monica Huggett, Nic McGegan, Harry Bicket, Nuria Rial, Hiro Kurosaki, and Maurice Steger, among others, including performances as a soloist with The English Concert in New York and the Portland Baroque Orchestra in the Oregon Bach Festival. In February of 2022 he made his debut as conductor with the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, playing with them as soloist a few days later in Francis Poulenc’s Concert Champêtre at the Bilbao Musika- Musica Festival.
First Prize winner at the 2012 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition, Mr. Prego has worked as a professor and resident artist at Yale University in the USA and has given masterclasses at various American universities, as well as in Costa Rica, Peru, Chile and Spain. He is currently an early music professor at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid.
Prego has recorded to great acclaim for the Glossa, Verso and Cantus labels Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Partitas and the Complete French Suites, among others. Mr. Prego 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. After graduating 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 Indiana University with Elisabeth Wright. In August 2012 Mr. Prego 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.