About Me
Jorge Luis Prats was born on July 3rd, 1956 in Camagüey, Cuba. He graduated from the National Arts College and earned a scholarship at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow where he studied under Rudolf Kerer. He continued his higher piano education at the Paris Conservatory and later on at the Hochshüle für Müsik und Künstler in Vienna under Paul Badura Skoda and Magda Tagliaferro in Paris. He also received master classes from Witold Malcuzcynski in Warsaw.He won the Grand Prix at the prestigious piano competition “Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud†together with the special prizes to the best interpretation of Maurice Ravel and André Jolivet along with the Chevillon Bonnard and Mohan awards at the same competition in Paris, 1977. He obtained the Gold Medal at the Katia Popova Festival in Bulgaria and the First Prize of the Amadeo Roldán Piano Competition in Havana, Cuba.Jorge Luis Prats has been invited to take part either as a jury member or the president of numerous international competitions such as the Iberian-American Piano Competition in Havana, the International Piano Competition of Santander, Colombia , the Hilton Head in South Carolina and Jaen International Piano competition.He is regularly a guest professor at prestigious Iberian-American learning institutions such as the National University of Colombia in Bogota, National School of Arts in Havana; The Center for Fine Arts, Mexico DF, and The Conservatory of Cordoba, Spain.and Glenn Gould Royal Conservatory in Toronto.His concert tours have taken him to every nation in the European continent, North, South and Central America, China, Japan and Korea. He has performed as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic in London, the BBC Orchestra, EOS Orchestra of New York and the Dallas Symphony. In Mexico he has performed with the Mexico City Orchestra, Ofunam Orchestra, and the Jalapa Orchestra. The Colombia Philharmonic, Venezuela “Simon Bolivar†Orchestra, the Municipal Caracas Orchestra, Berliner Staats-Oper and the Lamoreaux and Pas de Loup Orchestras of France. He has also toured on various occasions throughout Latin America and Spain with the Cuban National Symphony. , Prague Philharmonic , ……..He has recorded for a number of labels; Pathé Marconi (EMI France), Deutsche Gramophone (Germany), ASV, IMP (United Kingdom), Musical Heritage (USA). This discography includes the first ever recording of the 24 Preludes and The Satanic Poem by A. Scriabin for Pathé Marconi (EMI France), works by Beethoven, piano concertos by Grieg, the entirety of the works for piano and orchestra by Rachmaninoff, the Chopin concertos and a considerable roster of Cuban music.His repertoire includes concertos and works for piano and orchestra amongst which are:Various works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Rachmaninoff (all of the concertos), Prokofiev (second and third), Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Franz Liszt, Grieg, Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Scriabin, Dohnanyi, Litolf, Chopin.His recital repertoire includes works such as Bach’s Well Tempered and other Suites and Partitas, all of Mozart’s Sonatas and a great number of the Beethoven’s ones, nearly the entirety of Chopin’s works and Franz Liszt’s Sonata and Etudes, The Hungarian Rhapsodies and Mephisto Waltz. It also includes Gaspard de la Nuit by Ravel as well as works by Debussy such as Pour le Piano and works by Heitor Villa-Lobos together with all the Cuban inventory of classical music from the XVIII and XIX centuries including the dances and contra dances by Manuel Saumell and Ignacio Cervantes along with all of Ernesto Lecuona’s piano compositions. He also masters the most important productions by contemporary Cuban composers such as Carlos Fariñas and Harold Gramatges.
