TVE1, Interview in New York. Televison Espanola (Spain National TV).
Victor Prieto is one of the most important figures in his specialty in the world.
Víctor Prieto: Apostó por el acordeón y ganó una beca en un prestigioso conservatorio en Boston. Escogió el jazz y también lo logró. Se ha convertido en una de las figuras más destacadas del mundo en su especialidad, y sigue creciendo.
Watch the 5 minutes Video. Copy and paste the link
http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20091216/espanoles-nueva-york--victor/651118.shtml
Accordionist and composer, Victor Prieto is revolutionizing the way that the accordion is played by creating new sounds and techniques for this instrument. His music embraces different tendencies that come from Jazz, Tango, Classical and Celtic Roots enriched with new rhythms and colors. He is the creator of a new technique for the accordion called “chord approach on both hands”, which creates rich and elaborate harmonies.
Victor Prieto was born in Orense (Spain) in 1975. At the age of nine encouraged by his mother Victor begun to play the accordion. He pursued his studies in Classical accordion at the Orense Conservatory (Spain), while taking harmony, arranging and improvisation classes at Estudio Escola de Musica (Santiago de Compostela, Spain). After receiving a scholarship by the highly respected Jazz school- Berklee College of Music- Victor decided to pursue the performance major under the direction of Joanne Brackeen. Victor is the first and only of his kind, to specialize and apply studies in Accordion at Berklee College of Music. During his stay at Berklee Victor becomes friends with one of his mentors, Oscar Stagnaro.
In 2002 Victor moved to New York where he quickly established himself as one of the most prolific and versatile accordionists on the music and Jazz scenes. As a leader Victor has performed at many prestigious venues and events such as Berklee Performance Center, Lincoln Center, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Blue Note NY, New Jersey Performance Art Center, Three Rivers Musical Festival, Williamsburg Jazz Festival, Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center.
Victor has recorded and shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma (Songs of Joy and Peace, Sony BMG Masterworks, "Album 2010 Grammy Winnig") Jeff Ballard, Chris Cheek, Paquito D’Rivera, Donny McCaslin, Lionel Louke among others and is involved in projects such as Pablo Aslan’s Avantango, Emilio Solla’s NY Jazz Tango Project, Tessa Souter and Beat Kaestli.
He teaches Master Classes in Spain, Italy, Portugal, USA and has headed the jazz accordion studies at the Brooklyn Conservatory (2003 – 2004). He is a recipient of numerous awards and prizes for excellence in accordion performance and composition, among them are: the Creative Performer award from the Spanish Association of Artists and Performers, and the first prize at CMZK’s Concourse of Composition (Argentina).
Victor now lives in New York City dividing his time between performing, teaching and recording. He has recently introduced his third recording, "Chris Cheek and V. Prieto. Rollo-Coaster.", Cheekus Music.
New York, 2009
New DVD, Chris Cheek and Victor Prieto
"Live at Penelope Street" New York 2008
