Martín Pedreira Rodríguez

Wednesday
February 21, 2018
11:00 am-12:15 pm
WPAC Instrumental Hall
Free Admission

Thursday
February 22, 2018
8:30-11:00 am
WPAC Concert Hall

is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price.

Martín Pedreira Rodríguez (Havana, Cuba, 1952) began to play the guitar self-taught at the age of 10, and in 1968 initiated his academic studies at the National School of Art with the Maestro Isaac Nicola, graduating in 1975. He continued his training at the Superior Institute of Art in Havana under guide of Isaac Nicola and Leo Brouwer, graduating in 1983. He also conducted studies with Alirio Díaz and María Luisa Anido.

He has given presentations throughout the country, as well as in Mexico, Germany and Spain, where he was presented at the Art Lyceum of Madrid (1995) by the Spanish Guitar Society.

As a soloist he has taken part in important events such as the Andrés Segovia Competition in Granada (1981), the First Latin American Encounter of Guitarists, International Festivals in Havana and others.

To his solo work he added the chamber music integrating the ensemble Cuarteto Imaginario (1998), the guitar orchestra Sonantas Habaneras (2000) and the quartet Khitara (2010).

As a composer he has focused on the instrument. In 1987 he obtained the National Composition Prize of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba with his series of didactic pieces Divertimentos I.

Instrument Professor since 1975, he has carried out studies related to Didactic and guitar technique linked to physiology, with which he obtained a Master in 2002 and later a PhD in Arts (2007).

He has given numerous postgraduate courses, seminars and courses in Cuba, Spain and Mexico.

In December 2003 he received the Diploma of Pedagogical Merit, awarded by the Ministries of Culture and Higher Education, and in 2007, the Distinction for Cuban Education.

Since 2007, he has collaborated systematically with the National Museum of Music performing digital analysis and transcription of scores of the Cuban heritage repertoire.

He is coauthor with his teacher, Isaac Nicola (1916-1997) of a Guitar Method in four volumes (Ed. Atril, Havana, 2000), which is program of studies officially adopted by the National System of Artistic Education in Cuba.

In addition he has composed numerous didactic pieces, among them the albums Divertimentos I (25 pieces), Music for David (10 pieces), 10 Studies, Brief Preludes, and others.

Pedreira wrote Ergonomics of the Guitar: His Technique from the Corporal Perspective (Cúpulas Editions, Havana, 2011) and History of the Guitar. Readings Selection, Museum of Music Editions, 2017.

He has also published his transcriptions of popular guitarists as Jose Antonio (Ñico) Rojas (1927-2008) and Roberto González-Rubiera (Guyún) (1908-1987) (Museum of Music Editions, 2013 and 2017 respectively)

He is currently a music professor at the Arts University of Havana.