Tiento Nuovo & Ignacio Prego
Biography Tiento Nuovo & Ignacio Prego
Ignacio Prego
First Prize winner at the 2012 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition, Mr. Prego has been described by the newspaper El Mundo as “…one of the most versatile Spanish musicians in the Classical scene…” He has performed in major cities in the USA, China, Japan, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Chile, Holland, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Peru, Bolivia and Canada, including important venues such as the National Gallery of Arts in Washington, D.C., the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the National Auditorium in Madrid, the Esplanade in Singapore and the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York.
Recent appearances include Mr. Prego’s debut with The English Concert and Harry Bicket playing Bach’s F minor Harpsichord Concerto in New York. Also debuts in England with a solo recital at St. Martin in the Fields in London and in Berkeley, CA, playing Goldberg Variations; concerts with the Portland Baroque Orchestra conducted by Monica Huggett playing as soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival, Bach Harpsichord Concerti with Byron Schenkman & Friends in Seattle, a Japan/Singapore Concert Tour under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki, a concert conducted by Jordi Savall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, solo recitals at the National Gallery of Arts in Washington, D.C., the Cervantes Institute of Chicago, the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York and at the Westfield Continuo Conference in Tacoma, WA. A live performance at the WQXR NY Public Radio as part of the Bach360 Festival, a presentation at the NYIT Auditorium for the New York Philharmonic Insight Series and recitals with recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger and cellist Phoebe Carrai at the Frick Collection in New York and The Mansion of Strathmore in Bethesda. He also performed at the Chiquitos Early Music Festival in Bolivia, at the XI Early Music Festival in Lima, Perú, and at the Symphonic Hall in León, Spain. In January, the WFMT Classical Radio devoted the full first edition of its new show hosted by Candice Agree, Baroque&Before, to Mr. Prego and his recital at the Latino Music Festival in Chicago.
In December 2014, Mr. Prego released his second harpsichord solo CD under the Cantus Records label with the Complete French Suites. His recording solo debut with Verso in 2012 entitled “Chromatic Fantasy” was also dedicated exclusively to the music of J.S. Bach. ‘Scherzo’ Magazine hailed it as “outstanding mastery of Bach’s complex counterpoint architecture, overwhelming elegance and extraordinary control”; ‘El Cultural-El Mundo’ described it as an “…outstanding performance…” and the Juilliard Journal referred to it as “heavenly harpsichord music”. Mr. Prego recently recorded the Complete French Suites by J.S. Bach, which will be released in December of 2013. As continuo player, Mr. Prego often collaborates with various ensembles, including Spain based ‘La Ritirata’, with whom he just published a DVD for Cantus Records and a CD for Glossa, Maurice Steger Trio, etc.
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 the Indiana University with Elisabeth Wright. In August 2012 Ignacio 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.
Tiento Nuovo
Founded in 2016 by Spanish harpsichordist Ignacio Prego, Tiento Nuovo is the result of a personal project that recently returned to Spain after twelve years abroad.
Very soon after their return, Tiento Nuovo became a much sought-after baroque ensemble, frequently appearing in the major Spanish Concert Halls and Festivals, with a ‘brightness, depth and lyricism’ – as the respected journal Scherzo commented.
Among many Spanish engagements include appearances at the Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro in Madrid, Conde Duque Auditorium, Ciclo La Europa de Murillo in Sevilla, Ciclos de la Universidad Internacional Menendez Pelayo, Teatro Coliseo Carlos III in El Escorio, Ciclo Silencios in the Paula Monastery, and other noted venues.
Tiento Nuovo has recently undertaken a European-wide tour, with appearances at the Landesmuseum Wuttemberg in Stuttgart, the Royal Palace in Warsaw, and the Swiss Musik-Akademie in Basel.
The instrumental make-up of Tiento Nuovo is flexible, the musicians’ wide-ranging repertoire, from the greatest Baroque composers to those who remain sadly neglected. Among the ensemble’s most recent projects include J.S.Bach’s Concertos for Harpsichord and Orchestra, the Concerti Grossi of Arcangelo Corelli – with the collaboration of the renowned flutist Maurice Steger – as well as a series of programmes of music from the Italian seicento.
Tiento Nuovo and its distinguished director share a wide interest in other aesthetic disciplines: this has resulted in programmes with a historical theme, including ‘La Conjuración de Venecia’ [The Conjuring of Venice], where the renowned actor Pedro Casablanc represents the alter ego of Quevedo and where Spanish and Venetian music is blended with original texts written by the poet and the musical director. This programme was very successfully performed in Madrid, Santander and Seville.
