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Alumnus Carlos Prieto returns to MIT

"Like Rostropovich, Carlos Prieto is a true champion of the cello. A creative artist, scholar, and storyteller, Carlos has been a prolific contributor to the flow of music throughout the western hemisphere, premiering, compositions of some of the greatest contemporary composers and helping to nurture and develop an entire generation of Latin America's most talented musicians. I am privileged to know him as a colleague and honored to call him my friend."
--Yo Yo Ma

Cambridge, MA...World-class cellist Carlos Prieto, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with three degrees--one in engineering in 1958, and two more in metallurgy and economics, politics and engineering in 1959--returns to MIT on Friday, Feb. 29 for a performance at 5 p.m. in Killian Hall (Room 14W-111, 160 Memorial Drive).

He will present his new book, "The Adventures of a Cello" in a lecture, concert and book signing event which includes a recital of 4 movements from Suite in C major for unaccompanied cello by J.S. Bach (1720 -- the year of Prieto's cello's creation), and a piece dedicated to Prieto by a composer from his native Mexico, Samuel Ziman, Suite for Unaccompanied Cello (2007). A reception will follow.

"The Adventures of a Cello," is the story of "Cello Prieto" a 1720 Piatti crafted by Antonio Stradivari. Prieto traces the instrument's history through its previous ownership around the world. Prieto adds his personal experiences with the cello, recounting the premieres, performances and important relationships he has had with music luminaries such as Stravinsky, Casals, Shostakovich, and Rostropovich. In his exhaustive book, Prieto also provides information about violin making and about the cello repertoire from Stradivari to the present.

"The moment I bought the cello, I became very interested in learning its 300 year history," Prieto told Lynn Heinemann in a 2003 interview, noting that he took advantage of his concert tours to research his instrument's peripatetic life. " Unlike the movie 'The Red Violin,' which is 100 percent fiction, my book is 100 percent real," Prieto said. The book was published by University of Texas Press.

Prieto, who received degrees in engineering and economics from MIT, gave up his career as the head of a Mexican iron and steel company to return to his first love and continue his family's history of musicianship. "When I was born, my mother had already bought a child's violin-sized cello because they needed a cellist in the family," he told Heinemann. "I don't even remember when I first started playing."