Evelio Tieles

Evelio Tieles Ferrer (born August 8, 1941, Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban violinist and professor that has organized and promoted the instruction of bowed strings instruments in Cuba.

Academic background

Evelio Tieles began to study music in Cuba with his father, Evelio Tieles Soler, when he was seven years old, and continued at a later time with professor Joaquín Molina.

Between 1952 and 1954, Tieles studied violin in Paris, France, with Jacques Thibaud and René Benedetti. In 1955, he returned to Paris and studied at the National Superior Music Conservatory in that city. In 1958, he continued his musical training at Conservatorio Tchaikovsky in Moscú, where he was a disciple of violinists David Oistrakh and Igor Oistrakh. Tieles graduated in 1963 and by recommendation of the Conservatory he pursued his master's degree from 1963 to 1966, with the same mentioned professors.

Performer

Evelio Tieles has offered numerous presentations as a concert performer, in a duo with his brother, pianist Cecilio Tieles, or accompanied by the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and other symphonic and chamber ensembles. He participated frequently as a soloist in the “Jornadas de Música Contemporánea de los países socialistas” presented by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), and performed along with prestigious conductors such as Thomas Sanderling, Boris Brott, Enrique González Mántici y Manuel Duchesne Cuzán, entre otros.

In 1969, Tieles performed in México, invited by violinist Henryk Szeryng, and has conducted concert tours through numerous countries in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

Professor

Evelio Tieles worked in the National School of Arts and the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, Cuba, , and worked for many years as coordinator of the Cuban Music Journeys and the Contemporary Music Festival of the Socialist Countries in Havana, Cuba. He also created the Contemporary Music Festival of Havana, and founded along with his brother Cecilo, the Tieles Duo, to which many composers, such as Ramón Barce, Xavier Benguerel, Harold Gramatges, José Ardévol, Nilo Rodríguez, Salvador Pueyo and Gottfried Glöckner, among others, have dedicated original compositions. Other important Cuban composers have dedicated pieces to Evelio Tieles, such as the Cuban composers Alfredo Diez Nieto and Roberto Valera and the Spanish composer Ramón Barce.

In 2022, Tieles published a book Sentir-Pensar: El violin y yo (Feel-Think: The violin and me) in which he discusses his life, his pedagogical exprience with the violin, and his musical research.

Awards and recognitions

In 1962, Tieles received a Diploma at the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poland ; in 1964 he received and Honorific Mention at the Paganini Contest, in Italy; and in 1966 and Honor Diploma at the Tchaikovsky Contest in Moscow. He has also received national recognitions such as the Distinctions for the National Culture and the Artistic education, the Diploma to the Artistic Merit from the Superior Institute of Art, in 2002, the 50th Anniversary of FAR Medal in 2007 and the Distinction for the National Culture Medal in 2011.

Discography Encontre de Compositors V - Illa De Mallorca (UM, 1990). Evelio Tieles, violin; Cecilio Tieles, piano; Javier Maderuelo, Voice, Electronics; Carles Santos, piano; Jesús Rodríguez Picó, clarient; Simfonia Barroca (AYVA Musica, 2012). Orquestra de Cambre de Vila-Seca; Evelio Tieles, Director