Alejandro Viana, cello

Alejandro was awarded First Prizes at the International Cello Competition in Liezen, Austria; the Jaime Dobato Benavente Competition in Alcañiz; the Antonio Janigro Competition in Poreč, Croatia; the Manhattan Competition; Soncello; and the Karl Davidoff Competition in Kuldiga, Latvia. Born in Madrid, he studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía (ESMRS) with Ivan Monighetti and Natalia Shakhoskaya. He has received masterclasses from Raphaël Pidoux, Christophe Coin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Wolfgang Boettcher, Amit Peled, Wolfgang E. Schmidt, Claudio Bohórquez, Ralph Kirshbaum, Stephan Forck, Alexander Rudin, Philippe Müller, Gary Hoffman, Jens-Peter Maintz, Gautier Capuçon, Menahem Pressler, Gidon Kremer, Frans Helmerson, and Truls Mørk.

Alejandro has participated in IMS Prussia Cove, the Rutesheim Festival, Kronberg Masterclasses, and the Santander Festival. He performed Previn’s “Nonetto” with Anne-Sophie Mutter. At the ESMRS, he has been awarded the Outstanding Student Prize six times.

Alejandro has performed as a soloist with the Andrés Segovia Chamber Orchestra, the Solisti di Zagreb, the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, the IUVENTAS Orchestra, the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra, the Paris Conservatory Orchestra under Gautier Capuçon, and the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra alongside Plácido Domingo and Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He is currently a member of the Deloitte Mozart Trio.


Close-Up:

  • I have three favorite painters. Number one is the great master Francisco de Goya, but right now I love Monet and look at his work the most. I get a sense of peace when I contemplate his paintings because they are so light and expressive. I also really like Basquiat with his abstract but realistic vision of the world.
  • What all musicians or artists seek to do is find their own voices, something unique that defines them. We all want to express ourselves and to be able to connect with people with our message. It is a never-ending endeavor. We need to perfect our technique and, above all, find our own voice in the universal themes by looking at them from different perspectives and deepening our knowledge of the world around us, of art, nature, the human soul, music, all based on human languages. The more you know about these things and the better you can connect outside stimuli to the music itself, the better you will be able to reach people.
  • I strive to practice my instrument for four or five hours every day, but every day is different and I make the most of the time that I have.
  • Today’s world is very fast-paced and we want everything immediately. Classical music wasn’t exactly born during a period when people wanted everything immediately, nor was that the priority back then. Today, the standard snippet of music is consumed in 3 minutes, so getting people interested in a symphony that takes 30 or 40 to play is asking a lot. No one’s used to it. It’s not that they can’t listen to it, they simply aren’t trained to do so. I think that this is the main problem that classical music faces nowadays, as it attempts to survive in a market dominated by clips and snippets of music that have nothing to do with the way in which music is conceived. If we are to continue interpreting the traditional repertoire, we must get people to slow down. Long rehearsals, the time needed to create original versions of pieces and the length of the pieces themselves all seem to go against us. Maybe musical works created today are shorter in length and adjust better to today’s market. It’s complicated to adapt classical music to these expectations without sacrificing depth and the composer’s original intent. You see people doing it a lot, and I don’t think it is the solution. We must never give up the need for concentration to perceive the depth of the music, and the feeling of entering a new reality. I like to hear artists playing the classical repertoire and mixing it with other, more modern types of music. Classical music will have to evolve, on the one hand, and on the other, it is important to maintain a richness for the purists who really understand the essence and the soul of the music. We need to find a way for both options to go hand in hand.
  • With Nostrum Mare Camerata and Jacobo, I would love to play the Variations on a Rococo Theme and Brahms’ Double and Triple Concertos. However, where I think we really have a lot to contribute would be by playing pieces composed specifically for us. Just like in the old days when, say, Haydn, who knew his musicians well, would compose pieces for them and his own orchestra to play. Jacobo, in fact, has some pieces of his own composition that we are going to perform.