Pau Sandaran & Amat Santacana
Biography Pau Sandaran & Amat Santacana
Amat Santacana
Barcelona (1980). He studied cello with Suzana Stefanovic and Peter Thiemann in Barcelona. He graduated in Cello Performance at the Conservatorio Superior de Salamanca with Iagoba Fanlo and Aldo Mata and also graduated in chamber music with Alberto Rosado, Kennedy Moretti and Arnau Tomàs. He complements his training in Vienna with Wofgang Herzer and Howard Penny, in Stuttgart with the Melos Quartett, and in Zurich with Roel Dieltiens.
He is a founding member of the Qvixote Quartet in 2006, with whom he has performed throughout Europe and South America. He has been instructed in the art of string quartet playing at the European Chamber Music Academy with great world specialists such as Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Christoph Richter, among others.
He has won first prizes in the chamber competitions Josep Mirabent and Magrans de Sitges (2007), Montserrat Alavedra de Terrassa (2008) and Premio Joven Bach de Madrid (2013).
He has taught cello at the Robert Gerhard Municipal School of Music in Valls, at the Escolania de Montserrat, at the Liceu Professional Conservatory of Barcelona and at the Municipal Conservatory of Music in Manresa between 2009 and 2019. He has also given master classes in Venezuela and Bolivia and is regularly invited as a guest professor at the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia.
He has shared the stage with leading musicians such as members of the Casals Quartet, Kennedy Moretti, Gordan Nikolic, Khatia Buniatishvili and Olga Paschenko. He has also participated in the recording of the album 'Tempo Rubato' by Mayte Martin, with whom he has toured several times.
In the field of interpretation with historical instruments, he has played with Barry Sargent's Mallorca Baroque Orchestra and the Montsalvat Orchestra. He has performed on several occasions the 'Integral of the six suites for solo cello' by J. S. Bach. In addition, he has recorded the disc of the 'Sonatas for cello and basso continuo' by Antonio Vivaldi with Roel Dieltiens, awarded with the 'Editor's choice' prize by Magazine magazine.
His repertoire embraces 400 years of music for solo cello, from the first works of the 17th century to contemporary works. He has premiered works for solo cello by Joaquim Homs and has performed for the first time in Spain the work of the South Korean composer Geonyong Lee, 'Song in the dusk II'. He is currently immersed in the project of rediscovering the music of the forgotten cellos of the 18th century.
Pau Sandaran
is a pianist and composer, he has to his name, works for diverse instrumental settings such as solos, chamber music, big band and orchestra.
His works for big band have been performed at Vienna’s Musikverein, Vienna’s Birdland and Eisenstadt’s Haydn Saal.
Among other premiers, his Choro per a Frida for orchestra was performed by the Murta Ensemble under the musical direction of Xavier Puig in the Auditori de Santa Coloma de Gramenet and at the Teatro Zorrilla in Badalona. Likewise, the prestigious theatre group Corral de Comedias de Alcalá de Henares premiered his music for the theatre work El cavaller i els músics.
Pau Sandaran holds a Master of Arts in musical composition and a Bachelor of Arts in jazz composition from the Music University in Vienna.
Currently, he is professor of music theory, modern harmony and piano at the Conservatori Municipal de Vilanova i la Geltrú in Catalunya.
