Masterclass by Amancio Prada

The musical work of Amancio Prada (Dehesas, León, 1949) as a composer and performer has always had a literary base that, throughout his discography, has been shaping an anthological journey through the peninsular lyric, from the Cantigas of the first Galician-Portuguese troubadours (XII and XIII Ss. XII and XIII), passing through the Romancero, Juan del Enzina, Jorge Manrique, San Juan de la Cruz and Rosalía de Castro, to contemporary authors such as Federico García Lorca, Juan Ramón Jiménez, María Zambrano, Álvaro Cunqueiro, Carmen Martín Gaite, Agustín García Calvo, Luis López Álvarez, Antonio Pereira and Juan Carlos Mestre.

Among other awards, he has received the Castelao Medal of Galicia (1995), Castilla y León Prize for the Arts (2005), Grand Prix du Répertoire Sacem (2008), Tenco Prize (2010) and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2011).

18 OCT / 19.30H

Amancio Prada arrived in Paris in 1970 to study at the Sorbonne. His neighbor and roommate, tired of listening to him sing at night, knocked on his door one day and gave him "Vida y Obras de San Juan de la Cruz". "Read and be quiet," he told him. Prada, after leafing through it and reaching the pages of "Cántico Espiritual", was fascinated. In his solitude, and while reading the book of poems, he could listen to the sung music of St. John of the Cross and fell in love with the melodies that emerged from his soul.

After more than forty years of touring with "Cántico Espiritual de San Juan de la Cruz", Prada transmits the poetry book with a special emotionality where his voice stands out. This is, according to musicologist Inés Mogollón, his best tool: "of beautiful timbre and perfect diction, a voice that combines a form of lyrical declamation deeply expressive and very personal, a mastery of singing that makes the trembling of love, or if you prefer mystical, reach us even more disturbing".