§ 00 · Biography
Ignacio Prego (Madrid, 1981) is a harpsichordist, founder and artistic director of the ensemble Tiento Nuovo. In 2004 he moved to the United States, completing a double master's degree at Indiana University with Elisabeth Wright and at the Juilliard School with Kenneth Weiss and Richard Egarr. He was the first Spanish harpsichordist to record for the Glossa label. Leading Tiento Nuovo, founded in 2016, he received the Diapasón de Oro for his recording of the Concerti Grossi by Charles Avison. His discography includes Chromatic Fantasy (2012), the French Suites (2014), the Goldberg Variations (Glossa, 2016) and an album with the Partitas 3 and 5 (Glossa, 2022). He has performed at the Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection and the Euskalduna Palace, and at festivals such as Berkeley, Boston, FeMÀS Sevilla and the Quincena Musical de San Sebastián. He has collaborated with Steven Isserlis, Monica Huggett, Harry Bicket and Jordi Savall. He won the First Prize at the Westfield Harpsichord Competition (2012) and in 2023 was awarded the Leonardo Grant from the BBVA Foundation.
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 across the USA, China, Japan, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Chile, Holland, Portugal, Romania, Peru, Bolivia and Canada, including important venues such as the National Gallery of Art 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 his debut with The English Concert and Harry Bicket playing Bach's F minor Harpsichord Concerto in New York; debuts in England with a solo recital at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London and in Berkeley, CA, playing the Goldberg Variations; concerts with the Portland Baroque Orchestra conducted by Monica Huggett as soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival; Bach harpsichord concerti with Byron Schenkman & Friends in Seattle; a Japan/Singapore concert tour under Masaaki Suzuki; a concert conducted by Jordi Savall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and solo recitals at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Cervantes Institute of Chicago, the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute in New York and the Westfield Continuo Conference in Tacoma, WA. He has given a live performance on WQXR New York 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 at Strathmore in Bethesda. He has also performed at the Chiquitos Early Music Festival in Bolivia, the XI Early Music Festival in Lima, Peru, and the Symphonic Hall in León, Spain. In January, WFMT Classical Radio devoted the entire first edition of its show Baroque&Before, hosted by Candice Agree, to Mr. Prego and his recital at the Latino Music Festival in Chicago.
In December 2014, Mr. Prego released his second solo harpsichord CD on the Cantus Records label, the Complete French Suites. His solo recording debut, "Chromatic Fantasy" (Verso, 2012), was likewise devoted exclusively to the music of J.S. Bach: Scherzo magazine hailed its "outstanding mastery of Bach's complex contrapuntal 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". As a continuo player he often collaborates with various ensembles, including the Spain-based La Ritirata —with whom he has released a DVD for Cantus Records and a CD for Glossa— and the Maurice Steger Trio.
Mr. Prego is a recipient of the 2005 AECI Grant (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation), the 2009 Fundación CajaMadrid Grant and the 2014 English Concert–Harry Bicket Fellowship. After graduating with high honours from the Padre Antonio Soler Conservatory in Madrid, he continued his studies in the USA with Luiz de Moura Castro and Emile Naoumoff, and then studied harpsichord at Indiana University with Elisabeth Wright. In August 2012 he 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.