Pastrana Guillermo

The Spanish cellist Guillermo Pastrana, the winner of national prize "Ojo Crítico" 2014 RNE, is one of the greatest talents of contemporary musical life in Spain. Praised by the critics, the audience and recognized professionals, he is praised not only because of his strong musicality, but also because of his excellent sound and extraordinary stage presence.

Born in 1983, Granada, he shows an extraordinary love towards music and in particular towards cello since early childhood. Since then, the cello has become his life. At the age of 17 he began his studies abroad, becoming a pupil of Jan Halsdorf (Luxembourg) and Gustav Rivinius (Germany) and winning international competitions while still a student. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Basel Hochschule für Musik (Switzerland) with Ivan Monighetti.

Guillermo Pastrana has performed as a soloist in different cities and at festivals all over the world, such as Seoul, Luxembourg, Basel, Saarbrücken (Deutsche Welle), Carl Flesch Academy Baden-Baden (Germany), Viva cello Festival (Switzerland), Festival di San Remo (Italy), Festival de Medellín (Colombia) or in the Madrid Auditoria Nacional de Música. He performs regularly as a soloist he plays with first class orchestras, such as the Orquesta radio Televisión Española (ORTV), with orchestras such as the world in the monumental, theatre of the Filarmónica de Medellín (Colombia), the Sinfónica de Chile, the Orchestra of Sanremo, the Camerata Palatina Vilnensis, the Orquesta de Córdoba, Moscow Conservatory Symphonic Orchestra, Orquesta de Castilla y León, Sinfónica de Galicia, Filarmónica de Málaga, Sinfonica de Tenerife, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Sinfónica de Navarra. A collaboration connects him with conductors such as Josep Vicent, Kazuki Yamada, Manuel Hernández Silva, Michal Nesterowicz, Alejandro Posada, Aldo Ceccato, Antoni wit, Carlos Cuesta, Salvador Más, Michael Thomas and Damian Lorio.

He gives master classes in Spain and in other countries and had been working as a visiting professor at the University of Music and the Orquesta Academy of Medellín (Colombia). Furthermore he has been guest professor of the Youth Orchestra of Andalucía since 2013. Recently he is awarded with the prize for the best research in the field of education for the project "Seitenhiebe für Violoncello" (contemporary music for beginners) by the Basel Society of Music.