Amparo Lacruz

www.amparolacruz.com

 

The passion for chamber music and an enthusiastic involvement in teaching are the two focal points of her musical life. A rich discography gives testimony of her activity.

 

Recently, she has published in Columna Musica the complete recording of Bach’s Six Suites for cello solo.

From her interpretation the critics have highlighted:

 

«clarity and refined technique always at the service of musicality,… elegant in diction,… flowing in the rhythm, deliciously drawn and carefully explained » (Lluís Trullén, Catalan Musical Magazine)

 

«performed without further transcendentalism than the musical, in direct communion with the divinity. Personal versions, neither romantic, grandiloquent, or historicists. Warm, searching and achieving the beauty and fluency of phrasing, without following a previous fixed script or a unique thought» (Ultima Hora, Baleares).

 

«Clear lines, inviting rhythms,... chained lyric melodies,... the sound of his cello is very, very moving... The technical and sound quality leave no room for doubt... Amparo Lacruz endorses that Bachian garment like no one...» (Allessandro Pierozzi, Melómano).

 

«In the version that Amparo Lacruz offers us of this admirable corpus there is a love and respect for music that reveals an absolute maturity, rare in an interpreter of her youth... she not only offers us a magnificent (and unexpected) performance of the seminal Opus of her instrument, but also a compelling poetic interpretation of it» (José Luis Téllez, Scherzo).

 

Her CDs “Winter in flames” (Sonatas de Chopin y Bridge) and “Brahms & Röntgen”, with the pianist Andreu Riera, have also been acclaimed:

 

«Intensity, brilliance, exquisite intonation and delicate romantic expression» (Jorge de Persia, La Vanguardia).

 

«Virtuosity and perfect balance at the service of a sincere expressiveness and an interior lyricism, recreated with mastery and beautiful sound» (Javier Pérez Senz, El País).

 

Amparo Lacruz has performed at the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza of Granada, Festival of Religious Music of Cuenca, Contemporary Music Festival of Alicante, International Festival of Torroella de Montgrí, Porta Ferrada Festival, Festival Pau Casals in El Vendrell, Internacional Music Festival in Santander, Beaux Arts in Brussels (Belgium), Amsterdam Cello Biënnale, Peter de Grote in Groningen and Emmy Verhey Festival in Zaltbommel (Netherlands), Ravello Festival (Italy), Crussell Music Festival in Uusikaupunki (Finland), Festival Pau Casals in San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Vivacelli Festival in Seoul (South Korea), as well as in the Concert Seasons of the Juan March Foundation, the 400 Auditorium of the Reina Sofía Museum and the National Auditorium of Madrid, the Palau de la Música and L'Auditori of Barcelona and the Palau de la Música of Valencia. Her concerts have been broadcast on RNE, Catalunya Música, Radio France, RAI, Südwestrundfunk, National Radio of Finland, Radio 4 of the Netherlands, Euroradio, TV3 and Canal Mezzo.


She has introduced Spanish audiences the dance/musical experience “Bach x 2”, based on Bach’s Cello Suites. Amparo has explored connexions with the scenic arts, premiering in 2014 at L’Auditori de Barcelona “Suite de l’aigua” with music for solo cello and electronics by Carlota Baldrís and a stage design by Joan Font (Els Comediants). Together with the jazz pianist Uri Caine, she has toured in Spain, Germany and Italy presenting his project Wagner and Venice.


As a member of the Kandinsky Trio since 1999, she performed extensively though Europe, America and Asia. Their monographic CD “Joan Guinjoan” received the Price as Best Chamber Album by CD COMPACT Magazine in 2009. Two further CDs, “Schoenberg and Barcelona” and “Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms” have been acclaimed by the critics.

 

After several years of study with distinguished teachers in Spain, England and U.S.A., she became a founder member of Grupo Manon, an internationally-known chamber ensemble that performed and recorded a wide range of music almost for ten years. Notorious and much-praised was their recording of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps.


Amparo is currently cello and chamber music professor at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu of Barcelona and Musica Arts of Madrid.

She has given masterclasses at the Vivacelli Cello Festival in Seoul and the Amsterdam Cello Biënnale, and at prestigious Universities of the United States (Boston University, Oberlin College, California State University and West Chester), Japan (Tokyo Kunitachi College), China (Shanghai Conservatory), Mexico (Las Rosas Conservatory in Morelia and Peru (Lima Conservatory). She has been a faculty member at the Cervera International Music Festival, the Albéniz Foundation Courses at Camprodon, the ForumMusikae in Madrid, the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia (JONC) and the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE).