When and where was your first concert with the MCO? My first concert was on the second of May 2005. It was a concert in Ferrara with Daniel Harding and Emanuel Ax, and I was amazed by the energy and musicianship of the orchestra, great memories!!!
What’s the best thing about playing with the MCO? Uff, there are too many great things to select only one, but I would say, making music together with a chamber music spirit, passion and friendship.
What is the best thing about being a musician? What a privilege it is to make a living of my passion.
The first piece of music you fell in love with: That would be Vivaldi's Four Seasons, my father had a vinyl with Itzhak Perlman on the violin and I heard it when I was about 6. I still remember that it was in the summer after lunch and I could not stop listening to it!!!
What makes a “perfect” concert? When a concert goes so well that there is this feeling that grows in everybody. It gives a kind of energy that cannot stop: everybody is doing his or her best, and you can see the sparks in everybody's eyes.
BIOGRAPHY Violist of the prestigious Cuarteto Quiroga, Josep Puchades has been a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra since 2005. In Addition he is Chamber Music Professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Aragon. Born in Valencia, Spain, he has been a viola professor at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and was solo viola in the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana under Maestros Lorin Maazel and Zubin Metha from 2006 to 2011.
He has played chamber music, solo recitals and solo concertos in Europe and the U.S.A, and has been featured at festivals and venues such as Open Chamber Music Prussia Cove, Norfolk, Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, International Summer Academy Switzerland and Mozarteum Salzburg. He performed the Bartok Viola Concerto with the Radio Symphonieorchester Wien in 2004 and the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra in 2002.
Josep has been awarded 3rd prize in the II International Viola Competition Wien 2004, 1st prize in the Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition, New Haven, CT, 2002, and the Yale University Alumni Association Prize, 2002.
He has attended courses and masterclasses with Joseph de Pascuale, Gerard Caussé, Enrique Santiago, Jesse Levine, Julliard String Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Claude Franck, Peter Frankl, Erick Friedman, Peter Oundjian, Pamela Frack, Nobuko Imai and Seiji Ozawa.
Josep holds a bachelor’s degree from Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, a Master’s of Music and an Artist Diploma from Yale University and a Postgraduate degree from Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, having studied with Luis Llácer, Jesse Levine, Tokyo String Quartet and Thomas Riebl. www.cuartetoquiroga.com
August 2011 19 Aug / Fri 22:00 / Lucerne >> more October 2011 09 Oct / Sun 00:00 / London >> more 12 Oct / Wed 19:00 / London >> more February 2012 14 Feb / Tue 22:00 / Barcelona >> more
