Guillermo Pastrana

Guillermo Pastrana is one of Spain's most noted young cellists, with a long record of significant performances in the Spanish-speaking world and beyond. He is the brother of Spanish soprano Sandra Pastrana, with whom he has performed and recorded, for example on a 2017 album of Boccherini arias on the Brilliant Classics label. Guillermo Pastrana was born April 20, 1983, in Granada, Spain, and took up the cello at age six. He took lessons at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música "Victoria Eugenia" in Granada, moving at the tender age of seven to Luxembourg for studies with Jean Halsdorf. Pastrana attended the Hochschule für Musik Saar in Saarbrücken, Germany, working with Gustav Rivinius, and moved on to the Hochschule für Music in Basel, Switzerland, for further work with Ivan Monighetti. He has also taken master classes with Lluís Claret, Maria Kliegel, and Wolfgang Boettcher. Pastrana's career got a boost from wins at some prestigious pan-European prize competitions, including the Aram Khachaturian Cello Competition in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2006, and first prize at a soloists' competition at his alma mater two years later. He spent several years as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Saarbrücken Opera, and the prizes propelled him to a strong solo career. Pastrana has been especially visible at festivals, in Spain including the Granada International Music and Dance Festival, Santander International Festival, Cádiz Spanish Music Festival, and La Mancha Music Festival, and internationally including the Viva Cello Festival of Switzerland, the Lithuanian International Chamber Music Festival, the Festival di San Remo in Italy, and the Festival Medellín Vive la Música in Colombia. He has performed as a soloist with major Spanish symphony orchestras and has worked as far afield as Uruguay, with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Montevideo. Pastrana has emphasized teaching as well as concertizing. He has served on various competition juries, and taught at the Universidad de Música in Medellín, Colombia. Since 2013 has has been a resident instructor at the Youth Orchestra of Andalucía in Spain. In 2018 Pastrana made his solo debut on a recording of orchestral works by Saint-Saëns with the Basque National Orchestra.
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