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The Spanish organist, Juan María Pedrero, began his musical studies at the age of 6 in Zamora, where he studied piano with Trinidad Gamazo . He discovered the organ thanks to his uncle Juan Encabo, parish priest of the Church of San Torcuato . At the age of 10, he worked as an organist in that church and, at 15, he offered his first piano and organ concerts. Later, he moved to Barcelona, where he studied piano and organ at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu with professors Josep Maria Mas i Bonet (organ) and Ramón Coll (piano), obtaining the Premi d'Honor and specializing in the Iberian repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque. He continued his training under the guidance of Michael Radulescu, specializing in the organ music of J.S. Bach. Later, he studied with the eminent organist François-Henri Houbart at the Conservatoire Régional d'Orleáns, where he won 1st Prize for Improvement. Thanks to a grant from the Fundació La Caixa and the government of the Republic of France, he perfected himself at the Conservatoire National Superiéur de Musique et de Danse in Paris with Marie-Claire Alain for two years. In 2000 he won the First Prize at the Concours National Inter-Conservatoires de France, held in Angers.
In the 2001-2002 season (September 2001-August 2002), Juan María Pedrero served as resident organist at the Sapporo Concert Hall "Kitara" in Japan. He has also performed concerts throughout Spain, in important musical cycles such as the Madrid Sacred Art Festival, Compostela Organum Festival, "Villa de Tordesillas" Organ Concerts Cycle, Els Orgues de Catalunya, International Festival of Music and Dance of Granada, The Organ on the Camino de Santiago or the International Organ Academy of Granada, as well as in spaces as relevant as the Cathedral of Salvador de Ávila, Cathedral of Santa Eulalia of Barcelona, Cathedral of Santa María de Burgos, Cathedral of Santa María and San Julián de Cuenca, Cathedral of the Incarnation of Granada, Cathedral of Santa María of Regla de León, Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin of Salamanca, Cathedral of Santa María de Segovia, Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza and Hospital de los Venerables Sacerdotes de Sevilla. In addition to his usual concerts in Spain, Juan María Pedrero has performed on four continents: Europe (France, Slovakia, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Norway, Germany Austria, or Russia, the country in which he made a concert tour in 2012 - Ural and Siberia), America (Cuba, Ecuador, Panamá, or Canada), Asia (Japan) and Oceania (Philippines).
Throughout his career, Juan María Pedrero has collaborated with chamber ensembles such as the Ars Nova String Quartet and with orchestral formations such as the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra(Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Widor’s Symphony in G-minor), Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra or Granada City Orchestra, working under the direction of masters of the stature of Charles Dutoit, Zbyněk Müller or Salvador Mas . In the field of early music, his collaborations with groups such as Ars Longa (Cuba), Musica Aeterna Bratislava (Hungary), Lux Venti (Spain) or Schola Antiqua (Spain), with directors as important as Peter Zajíček or Juan Carlos Asensio. Also, throughout his career he has performed with important soloists, such as the violinists Peter Biely and Joachim Kopyto, the viola Andrzej Skrobszewski, the organist Monica Melcova, the lute player Hopkinson Smith or the soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr. He has played organ and keyboard concerts by J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and J. Haydn.
In his long career, Juan María Pedrero has recorded several albums on historical organs in Spain, aand on the Kern organ at the Sapporo Concert Hall, as well for radio and other media. In addition, he has He has collaborated with his sister, the musicologist Agueda Pedrero-Encabo, in the first edition of the 24 Pieces and Tocatas by the Spanish 18th century organist Joseph Elías, published by Editorial Trito, and has collaborated as an advisor in various restoration and organ construction projects.
At present, Juan María Pedrero combines his concert activity with teaching, being a professor at the Professional Conservatory of Music "Ziryab Musician" of Córdoba (2002-2004) and, since 2004, at the Professional Conservatory of Music "Ángel Barrios" of Granada. Likewise, since 2011 he has been an organ professor at the "Victoria Eugenia" Royal Conservatory of Music in Granada, the city where he currently resides. Since 2011, he has been a permanent academic at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias, as well as vice-secretary, and coordinator/artistic director of the International Organ Academy of Granada organized by said institution, which is held every year in September. |
