The Religious Music Festival of Popayán, Colombia, has been held during Easter week for more than 50 years. Twelve concerts and an educational programme are scheduled for the 51st event. With the collaboration of AC/E, the corporation of Popayán Festival has invited the Spanish cellist Aldo Mata to perform the Easter Thursday Concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Cali .
Aldo Mata has received awards in several competitions: he won first prize in the national competition of young musicians and the Concerto Competition of Chicago Musical College, and was runner up in the Searle Competition, Popper Competition, etc. He is notable for his performances of Mauricio Sotelo’s ‘De Amore’, a solo cello piece, and Kodaly’s concerto for solo cello. He took part in the National Symphonic Orchestra of Colombia’s tour of the country and as a soloist he has performed Dvorak’s Concerto, the solo piece in R. Strauss’s Don Quixote at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá and subsequently the Schumann, Saint-Saens and Lalo concertos in Medellín. In 2008 he gave his first performance as a soloist in the Auditorio Nacional (Madrid) with Brahms’ Double Concerto. He is a founding member of the Cuarteto Granados and has been invited as leading cellist by the orchestra of RTVE and by the Escuela Musikene de Donosti/San Sebastian, where he has taught classes. He currently plays a violoncello crafted in Piacenza by Giuseppe Nadotti in 1787.
Aldo Mata has received awards in several competitions: he won first prize in the national competition of young musicians and the Concerto Competition of Chicago Musical College, and was runner up in the Searle Competition, Popper Competition, etc. He is notable for his performances of Mauricio Sotelo’s ‘De Amore’, a solo cello piece, and Kodaly’s concerto for solo cello. He took part in the National Symphonic Orchestra of Colombia’s tour of the country and as a soloist he has performed Dvorak’s Concerto, the solo piece in R. Strauss’s Don Quixote at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá and subsequently the Schumann, Saint-Saens and Lalo concertos in Medellín. In 2008 he gave his first performance as a soloist in the Auditorio Nacional (Madrid) with Brahms’ Double Concerto. He is a founding member of the Cuarteto Granados and has been invited as leading cellist by the orchestra of RTVE and by the Escuela Musikene de Donosti/San Sebastian, where he has taught classes. He currently plays a violoncello crafted in Piacenza by Giuseppe Nadotti in 1787.