Welcome!
The Raul Experience
A passionate for people and life, Raul soon understood the need for building audiences for the organ so he could share his art with them. Despite the bad image of the king of instruments in Spain, his approachability, contagious passion and overwhelming creativity made him succeed the challenge increasing audiences by multiples of 30 at venues like the Spanish National Concert Hall in Madird and the Mataró-Barcelona Summer Organ Festival. Raul is widely credited by press and media for "reinvigorating interest on the organ" (-Thomas Neenan, Los Ángeles Philarmony Concert Hall/Diseny Concert Hall).Described by promoters in the USA as "The Raul Experience" after critics remarks like The Diapason's "His positive energetic style was quite infections", we sincerely hope this new website will offer a truthful window to his work and ideas which could serve organ lovers and new generations to enjoy and believe in the future of the king of instruments -BCN Music Productions
"Raul is a Hit!... An iconoclast performer"
(Helen VanAbema Rodgers, St. James Church Presenter, Fairhope, AL)
Raul Prieto Ramirez's absolute passion for Music moves him to share his talent anywhere the audience is. Every July he plays his own designed instrument outdoors in a square of Mataro-Barcelona, for casual folks and children during more than three hours. Believe it or not, between a wide selection of romantic, baroque, modern and even theater organ pieces, it is always Bach the composer which congregates a wider audience. In 2008, when Raul moved to a small village in a Natural Park north Barcelona, he discarded electronic organ companies with aggressive publicity against the pipe organ, and designed his home instrument with the support of local woodworkers and engineers. With the intention to perform with his wife in venues where a pipe organ is not available -Piano&Organo Duo-, Raul designed an instrument easily transportable that fits in a mid-size van and uses only 8 screws. With such instrument he has been able to promote the organ and its music in numerous venues in Europe.
The Video of the Month
February 2017: Broadway Baptist Fort Worth, TX
Raul Prieto Ramirez performs live in the Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn, French style, organ built by Casavant Op. 3750
We start 2017 with a new series of videos: LVCS -Live Video Concert Summaries-. We will not upload full concerts because promoters deserve respect, and we still want to enjoy the concerts live instead of through a computer, right? But we hope this summaries will offer a bite of some fantastic instruments, my performances and the magic of the concerts. Please enjoy!!!!
Raul Prieto Ramirez
"Raul brings the Organ out of the Shadows"
(ABC News-Madrid)
Increases of 20 times in audience members just 6 months after his presentation as Artistic Director in Madrid Spanish National Concert Hall with 27 years old (according to the tickets office statistics); The first silent movie concert ever organized in Spain; Special venues creator and designer with multi-arts, active lighting, new repertoires...; 600 hundred children exposed to the organ every semester in coordination with pedagogues and schools; Performer and creator of the yearly most attended organ concert in Europe broadcasted live on TV for the whole Catalonia region; Creator and Director of the Sursa American Organ Competition in Ball State University; Creator and developer of the widely successful Organ Festival in Mataró-Barcelona with almost every event sold out every Summer and audiences of over a thousand; Concerts outdoors; dynamic organ presentations for general audiences... Raul's creativity and mastering of the Artistic Consulting are widely proved and successful.
"His brilliant virtuosity and abundant expressive prowess remained in complete service to his musicologically informed, deeply insightful interpretations"
(Bruce B. Stevens)
The Bardi Camerata believed in Music as an extremely powerful tool to make societies better. Raúl chose the organ as the instrument that provides him with the wider amount of musical resources and possibilities to put hands on just that same idea. Although he spent his first student years playing 17th and 18th century Spanish organs, Raul is not limited to one particular repertory. He investigates every single style and period with equal devotion to understand its complexity to the deepest. Then he offers his work to his students and to the stage performance. He worked on a majority of organ schools and literature with leading teachers such as Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Eric Lebrun, Lionel Rogg, Zsigmond Szathmáry, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Jean Willem Jansen, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Jean-Pierre Leguay... and on other instruments also with Jacques Ogg, Paul Badura-Skoda, Leonid Sintsev and Janos Starker among other. He studied for 5 years with Dr.Prof. Ludger Lohmann both Bachelor and Solistenclass in the Stuttgart Musikhochschule.
As a result of his work, critics has hailed him as a performer who is "...able to give a defined personality to each interpretation, whether the piece belonged to the 16th, 17th or even the 21st century" -El Norte de Castilla, Spain; and "His interpretations, all of the highest level, demonstrated great artistic maturity, security, and eloquence--something possible only in musicians who have raised their art to an existential level" -Emmanuele Vianelli, Duomo di Milano, Italy
"Raul holds his audience and enthuses them"
(El Punt - Barcelona, Spain)
Raul Prieto Ramirez has been described by critics as "fearless", "exciting", "sizzling"... someone who "... instantly connected with the audience" and for whom "Our audience rose to its feet with applause at every opportunity". From Moscow to Los Angeles, Raul has proved to be a musician whose art is meant to be understood by the audience. He loves the people and he works to make the most valuable music accessible and understandable for them. Audiences perceive immediately such warm relaxed and passionate attitude, and they react with trust and enthusiasm: “Raul Prieto Ramirez is a colossally talented organist. His fearless playing and at-times brazen registrations gave his eclectic program a nervy, exciting flair so often lacking in classical recitals" - Joey DiGiugielmo, Washington Blade; "The program was so electrifying that he earned an enthusiastic standing ovation at the intermission as well as at the end, after which the audience demanded several encores" -Bruce B. Stevens
