The Diaz Trio
One of America’s leading chamber music ensembles and one of the few professional string trios, the Díaz Trio is comprised of three dynamic artists, each a star in his own right. The Trio has toured Europe, Asia, and the Americas appearing at major venues in key American cities, at Finland’s Kuhmo Festival, and the Casals Festival in France, among many. Isaac Stern invited them to Carnegie Hall to celebrate the next one hundred years of music-making there and to premiere a string trio written for them by Gunther Schuller. Recordings include the music of Paganini, Penderecki, Dohnanyi, and Beethoven.
Cuban-born violinist Andrés Cárdenes captured Second Prize in Moscow’s 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition and has appeared as a soloist on four continents with over 100 orchestras under conductors including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Sir André Previn, and Manfred Honeck. He served for over 20 years as Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony and has garnered critical and audience acclaim as a violinist, conductor, violist, chamber musician, concertmaster, and recording artist.
Chilean-American Roberto Diaz, was principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1996 to 2006, and before that of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich. He has worked with major 20th and 21stcentury composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki, whose double concerto he premiered in the U.S. Ricardo Lorenz, Roberto Sierra, and Jennifer Higdon have written concerti for him. His recordings include a Grammy-nominated disc of viola transcriptions by William Primrose. Mr. Diaz is president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music.
Andrés Díaz, brother of Roberto Diaz, was born in Santiago, won First Prize in the 1986 Naumburg International Cello Competition, has earned exceptional reviews for his “strongly personal interpretive vision” (Times), “bold and imaginative” playing (Boston Globe), and was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Concerts include the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Shaw, the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the Chicago and National symphonies, and concerts in Asia, Latin America, and the Soviet Union. He is Professor of Cello and head of the Strings Department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Koerner Chair in Cello at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
