Carme Vilà i Fassier (born 1937) is a Catalan

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. From 1997 to 2001 she was the director of the

Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona The Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona ( ca, Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona, ) is a teaching institution, which is devoted to music education. The present ownership belongs to the Barcelona City Hall. History The beginnings took ...

Biography

Vilà was born in

Roses A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

, and is the fourth generation of pianists in her family. She started studying piano at the age of four with Emilia Palau. She entered the '' Conservatori Superior del Liceu'' in Barcelona at the age of 12, and graduated with the highest grades and with the Silver and gold medals at the age of 16. She later studied with

Béla Síki Béla Síki (21 February 1923 – 29 October 2020) was a Hungarian pianist. Career He was born in Hungary, where he was a student in Budapest of Leo Weiner and Ernest von Dohnányi at the Franz Liszt Music Academy. He moved to Switzerland in 194 ...

in Switzerland, at the age of 17, and she was one of the finalists in the Geneva International Piano Competition in 1953 and 1955. In 1959 she entered the Musik Hochschule in Vienna at the Konzertfachklasse of the professor Richard Hauser and won the Haydn-Schubert International Competition in Vienna. In 1961 Vilà obtained the Reifeprühfung from the Musik Akademie in Vienna with the highest qualification. She also studied with Alfred Brendel, Paul Badura-Skoda and Jörg Demus and received an extraordinary prize in the International course that these three great pianists gave in Vienna in 1962, granted and awarded by the Chigiana Academy of Siena where she took the courses with

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poeti ...

and Guido Agosti. In 1966 she obtained the

Harriet Cohen Harriet(t) may refer to: * Harriet (name), a female name ''(includes list of people with the name)'' Places *Harriet, Queensland, rural locality in Australia * Harriet, Arkansas, unincorporated community in the United States * Harriett, Texas, ...

Medal in London. From 1967 to 1972 she worked as an assistant to Paul Badura-Skoda and as a resident artist at the

University of Wisconsin–Parkside The University of Wisconsin–Parkside (UWP) is a public university in Somers, Wisconsin. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System and has 4,644 students, 161 full-time faculty, and 89 lecturers and part-time faculty. The university of ...

in the United States, where she is a doctor honoris causa. During this period she gave numerous concerts in South America with Ruggiero Ricci until she returned to Spain In 1977, where she received the Chair of the

and was its director from 1997 to 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilà, Carme 1937 births Living people People from Girona Catalan pianists Spanish women pianists 21st-century pianists 20th-century pianists Spanish music educators Spanish women music educators Spanish expatriates in the United States Spanish expatriates in Switzerland Spanish expatriates in Austria 20th-century Spanish musicians 21st-century Spanish musicians 20th-century Spanish women 20th-century women pianists 21st-century women pianists