Pau Casals i Defilló, known in English as Pablo Casals, was a Catalan and Puerto Rican cellist, composer, and conductor. He made many recordings throughout his career of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, including some as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings he made of the Cello Suites by Bach. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.
Yolanda Rosa Monge Betancourt, known professionally as Yolandita Monge, is a Puerto Rican singer, actress, and television personality. She has been active in the music business since her teen years and has recorded 27 studio albums and two live albums, as well as several greatest hits compilations and special appearance recordings.
Eugene George Istomin was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose.
The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in musical theatre.
The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in honor of classical musician Pablo Casals.
Frank Miller was a principal cellist and music director whose professional career spanned over a half-century.
Ernestina Ramirez was an American dancer and educator, best known as the founder and artistic director (1970–2009) of Ballet Hispanico, the premier Latino dance organization in the United States.
Micaela Nevárez was born on January 1, 1972, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Nevárez is a Puerto Rican actress known for her roles in independent and European films. Her debut was in the Spanish film Princesas, directed by directed by Fernando León de Aranoa. In the film, she portrayed Zulema, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic trying to make a living as a prostitute on the streets of Madrid, Spain. Nevárez's compelling performance in this film earned her the Goya Award for Best New Actress in 2006, a historic achievement as the first Puerto Rican actress to win this notable award.
The Kronberg Academy is a private music school for string instrumentalists based in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany. Founded in 1993 by Raimund Trenkler, the academy trains a select group of young musicians who have the potential to build international careers as soloists and chamber musicians.
Abraham Alexander Schneider was a violinist, conductor and educator. Born to a Jewish family in Vilnius, Lithuania, he later moved to the United States as a member of the Budapest String Quartet.
Gloria González is a Puerto Rican composer with an extensive repertoire of pop and salsa songs.
Emilio Colón is an American solo cellist, chamber musician, conductor, composer and pedagogue. He was born in Puerto Rico. He is an international artist, concertizing in Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Malta, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.
Viviana Sofronitsky is a Russian and Canadian classical pianist, born in Moscow. Her father was the Soviet-Russian pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky.
David Jerome Oppenheim was an American clarinetist, and classical music and television producer. Oppenheim directed the Masterworks division of Columbia Records from 1950 to 1959. During this time he worked with numerous major figures in the music world including Igor Stravinsky, with whom he formed a friendship, later producing for him.
The recorded history of Puerto Rican women can trace its roots back to the era of the Taíno, the indigenous people of the Caribbean, who inhabited the island that they called Borinquen before the arrival of Spaniards. During the Spanish colonization the cultures and customs of the Taíno, Spanish, African and women from non-Hispanic European countries blended into what became the culture and customs of Puerto Rico.
Marta Domingo is a Mexican opera soprano, stage director and designer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she performed as a lyric soprano in Mexico and Israel. Since the 1990s, she has directed operas in Europe and North America. She is married to Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, who has credited her with helping to guide his career.
Vilma Reyes Díaz is a Puerto Rican poet. She has served as a teacher of Spanish language and has chaired the International Poetry Festival in Puerto Rico since 2010. She has been an influence on young Puerto Ricans in literary creation by offering free workshops for children and youth poetry and has published several books as a result of that work.
Marta Moreno Vega is the founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). She led El Museo del Barrio, is one of the founders of the Association of Hispanic Arts, and founded the Network of Centers of Color and the Roundtable of Institutions of Colors. Vega is also a visual artist and an Afro-Latina activist.
Angélica Negrón is a Puerto-Rican composer and multi-instrumentalist recognized for composing music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics, as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choirs, and films. Negrón is a founding member of the electronic indie band Balún, where she sings and plays the accordion. She is based in Brooklyn, New York, where she is a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program and Lincoln Center Education.
Sandra Rivera was a Puerto Rican actress, theater, television and film producer, director and writer. For 56 years she was also the artistic director of La Comedia Puertorriqueña, one of the island's leading theater companies founded by her in 1965.
