Hello!
My name is Raúl Prieto Ramírez, originally from Spain. I have had the privilege to perform a very successful concert at Disney Hall 4 years ago, both my colleagues Phillip Smith and Manuel Rosales (as well as your staff David van Norden) would be able to provide some references about it -I'm including here below both my interview with Thomas Neenan and some shots from Social Media-.
The reason for this communication is to explore any interest on bringing my Educational Projects with organ to LA Philharmonic now that I have moved to Southern California.
I feel artistic satisfaction both sharing music with audiences as a concert performer as I do creating pathways for kids to discover the greatest music they are not normally exposed to nowadays. Even show and tells about music with adults, including wine, art and music pairing concerts as well (my wife is a WSET 3 sommelier). I just love sharing my passion for art with others.
My higher profile in the music education field for non-musicians -so not including masterclasses- has been my job as Artistic Director for everything organ related for the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir in Madrid National Concert Hall in Spain, where I was sharing working space with Mark Withers -back then in charge of the educational programs for the BBC Orchestra in London-. With them I developed a very successful educational project that was in the heart of my strategy to revive the organ in the City (the national newspaper ABC named it as: "El órgano sale de las tinieblas"/ "The Organ breaks out of the shadows" ). Here below you have a short visual dossier about the project. Dossier Madrid Project ->
Later I developed an entire organ festival and summer academy in Mataró (a suburb of Barcelona) that grew to become the larger and certainly the most advance in terms of programing in Spain with unique proposals like "the organ on the streets", gaining a solid reputation receiving students from Europe, Asia and the USA over 8 years. I'm not very good at speaking about myself, so here below you have a 3 minutes professional video offering some perspective over my work as artistic director in Barcelona. The introductory video above includes most of it, plus some additional material like minute 3:15 where it shows what happened with kids when we located my touring organ in the middle of a busy street, beside some takes from various concerts so you can attach a face and stage presence to my words. The video on the right is a professionally edited performance of my transcription of Liszt's Mephisto Waltz N.1 so you can see my performance work as well.
I was filled with joy reading how Maestro Dudamel is leading the LA Philharmonic to invest an important part of its artistic energy and resources to bring the music in capital letters to the generations of the future. I feel totally related with such honorable commitment since day one of my career, and having now moved to Southern California, I would like to explore if Maestro Dudamel would be interested in developing any of my educational projects with the organ in Disney Hall including the same project I'm developing now for the city of San Diego (I just obtained by unanimity of both the search committees and the audience the job as San Diego Civic Organist, and just like in the past, I'm developing an Educational Program that can serve the schools districts in San Diego County, especially the ones that need it the most).
Thank you for your attention
Raúl Prieto Ramírez
email: raul.prieto.ramirez@gmail.com // cell: 765-749-9062