2005 CSU Cello Symposium, featuring cellist Andres
Diaz.
2005 CSU Cello Symposium, featuring cellist Andres
Diaz.
Andres Diaz, Cellist
Mr. Diaz is a 1998 awardee of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as a generous grant from the Susan W. Rose Fund for Music. Since winning the First Prize in the 1986 Naumburg International Cello Competition, Mr. Diaz has exhilarated both critics and audiences with his intense and charismatic performances. He has earned exceptional reviews for his "strongly personal interpretive vision" (The New York Times) and his "bold and imaginative" playing (The Boston Globe).
Andrés Diaz's numerous orchestral appearances have included return engagements with the Atlanta Symphony under the late conductor Robert Shaw; performances with the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, Seattle, Victoria, B.C., Rochester under Christopher Seman, the Boston Pops and Esplanade Orchestras, the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival with Edo de Waart conducting, and the National Symphony Orchestra. Among the highlights of Mr. Diaz's recent seasons are tours of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and Canada performing in recital and with orchestra; appearances in Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, the Dominican Republic; a series of concerts in the Soviet Union where he performed as soloist with Russia's Saratov Symphony in the cities of Saratov and Moscow; and a tour of the major cities in New Zealand with the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra.
The young virtuoso is a sought-after recitalist and made his Alice Tully Hall debut in 1987 after winning the Naumburg International Cello Competition. He received critical praise for his second appearance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in 1989 when The New York Times remarked that his musical views "always seemed deeply considered rather than superficial or manufactured." His recital appearances have included the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Jordan Hall and the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, and the highly regarded San Francisco Performances Series.
Andrés Diaz frequently performed with the late pianist Samuel Sanders. The Diaz/Sanders Duo performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall in New York, the Philadelphia Arts Museum, Atlanta's Spivey Hall and other venues across the U.S. and abroad. They appeared in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Colorado Springs, Detroit, and Japan, where they appeared at Tokyo's Suntory Hall. Among other renowned pianists with whom Mr. Diaz has collaborated are Judith Gordon, Margo Garrett, Richard Goode, Mishca Dichter, and Anne-Marie McDermott.
During the summer of 2001, Mr. Diaz will give the world premiere of Gunther Schuller's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra at the Brevard Music Center with the Brevard Chamber Orchestra. In February 2001, Mr. Diaz performed the American Premiere of Frank Bridge's Oration for cello and orchestra at Boston University. Other works Mr. Diaz has premiered include Leon Kirchner's Music for Cello and Orchestra in Boston with the composer conducting – Diaz later performed the piece with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, James Paul conducting, where it received the First Prize Friedham Award – and Thomas Oboe Lee's Cello Concerto which was expressly written for Diaz and performed with the Boston Civic Symphony.
Andrés Diaz's debut solo recording on MusicMasters of works by Manuel de Falla and Robert Schumann with pianist Samuel Sanders was acclaimed by The Boston Globe as "strong and subtle; everything Diaz does has personality and, better than that, character." On the Dorian label, the two artists have also released Brahms's Sonatas for Piano and Cello; Russian Romantics, a compilation of short Russian works; and most recently American Visions, featuring works of Barber, Bernstein and Foote. Mr. Diaz's current orchestral solo release (also on the Dorian label) features the Villa-Lobos Cello Concerto No. 2 with Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and conductor Enrique Diemecke. This recording won a 1996 Allegro Music Award for Best Orchestral Release.
Mr. Diaz's summer festival appearances (including frequent return engagements) include the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Marlboro, Ravinia, Bravo! Colorado, Spoleto, Saratoga and Tanglewood festivals. His appearances at Tanglewood earned him the Pierre Mayer Memorial Award for Outstanding String Player. He has toured nationally with the Santa Fe and Spoleto festivals. Other festival appearances include the Victoria (B.C.), Steamboat (Steamboat Springs, CO), Musicorda (MA), Rockport (MA) and Cape & Islands festivals.
Andrés Diaz is very active with the Diaz String Trio, featuring violinist Andres Cardenes and violist Robert Diaz. Together they have performed in the cities of Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami; at the Kuhmo Festival in Finland and the International Festival of St. Cypriene in France; and they have toured extensively in South America and Mexico. The trio was invited by Isaac Stern to play at Carnegie Hall's Centennial Celebration, and from 1994-96 it served as Trio in Residence at the Florida International University. The trio has released its first recording featuring music of Paganini on the Dorian label.
Andrés Diaz was born in Santiago, Chile in 1964, and began studying the cello at the age of five. Three years later he moved to Atlanta, Georgia and studied at the Georgia Academy of Music with Martha Gerchefski. Mr. Diaz graduated from the New England Conservatory where he worked with Laurence Lesser and Colin Carr, and currently plays an active role in chamber music performances with the Conservatory's faculty. He served for five years as Associate Professor of Cello at the Boston University and Co-Director of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Quartet Program, resigning in September 2001.
Mr. Diaz lives in a suburb of Philadelphia with his wife, Julie, and son Peter Manuel. He plays a 1698 Matteo Goffriller Cello and a bow made by his father, Manuel Diaz.
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