World-class cellist Carlos Prieto, Course III ’59, has performed all over the world.
He also presented his new book, The Adventures of a Cello in a lecture, concert, and book signing event which included a recital of four 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).
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 MIT’s 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 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 says, “I don't even remember when I first started playing.”