Carles Santos (Vinaros, 1940) can be considered an integral artist who started his long career as a pianist, covering later many other disciplines like direction and composition. The sum of all these facets, in addition to accumulated experience and reflections in other artistic areas like movies or theater, take shape in his numerous scenic, musical, and plastic works, which have given him an international recognition due to the originality of his projects and the rigor of their realization.

His career began in the Superior Conservatory of Music of Barcelona's Liceo, where he obtained awards that would later give him an opportunity to complete his education in Paris where he studied with such masters as Fevrier, Casadesus, Magda Tagliaferro, Margaret Long, and later with Harry Datymer in Switzerland. As a professional pianist, he started his career in 1961, playing a repertoire of Bartok, Schoenberg, and Webern. During the same years, he composed and played the musical part of Joan Brossa's Concert Irregular, premiered at Saint Paul de Vence, Barcelona, and New York to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Joan Miro. It was a musical theater play with script by Joan Brossa and was commissioned by the Maeght Foundation.

In 1968, he received a March Foundation grant and moved to the United States, where he worked with many personalities of the musical avant-garde and met John Cage. During the seventies, while directing the Grup Instrumental Catala (GIC), founded by himself and Mestres Quadreny, he made his first piano recording that included works by John Cage, Anton Webern, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

At the same time, his interest in movies leads him to collaborate with such directors as Pere Portabella, Jordi Cadena, Gonzalo Herralde, and Carles Duran. His debut as a filmmaker took place in 1967 with the short movie L'Apat; he went on through the nineties as a producer, screenwriter and music composer, having built up an extensive filmography that includes short and full-length films, documentaries, and several videos.

His better-known discography starts in 1981 with the recording of Voice Tracks in New York. This was followed by Piano Track and a series of recordings for solo piano and voice, and, eventually, by recordings of longer works. To these recordings (see the discography pages) are added compositions for different orchestral groups, ensembles, and choirs ending at present with his cantata L'Adeu de Lucrecia Borja (2000), transformed later into an opera.

From the seventies on he decides, as a pianist, to play nothing but his own music. Santos was invited to play at festivals all over the world, e.g., Festival d'Automme (Paris), Wintermusic '82 (Karlsruhe), Fundaçao Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Musicalia (Milano), Jazz Festival (Moers), Festival Música Nova de Santos (Brasil), Foro Internacional de Nueva Música (Mexico), Music Theatre Festival (London), Bienal San Juan de Puerto Rico, Zuerche Theater Spektakel (Zurich), New Music America '83 (Washington), Festival Internacional de Música Electroacústica (Cuba), etc. His music, which was always known to be influenced by minimalism, develops a very special personality and merges all kinds of musical languages and influences, from romanticism to atonal and dodecaphonic, and last, but not the least, Spanish. During that period, his great concern was communicating with the audience, bringing himself face-to-face with the public, and trying to avoid the boredom caused by certain avant-garde musicians of the period; that concern along with the passionate expression of his ideas has been constant throughout his artistic career.

In addition, and as a consequence of his previous experience in the world of performance that is supposed to be a prelude to his theatrical dimension, from the early 80's on he begins to create a series of scenic and musical shows like Beethoven, si tanco la tapa...què passa? (1983), Té xina la fina petxina de Xina? (1983), Arganchulla, Arganchulla Gallac (1985), Tramuntana Tremens (1989), La grenya de Pasqual Picanya (1991), the opera Asdrúbila (1992), L´esplèndida vergonya del fet mal fet (1995), Figasantos-fagotrop: missatge al contestador, soparem a les nou (1996), La Pantera Imperial (1996/97), Ricardo i Elena (2000), L'adéu de Lucrècia Borja (2001), Sama Samaruck Suck Suck (2002), Lisístrata (2003), El Compositor, la Cantant, el Cuiner i la Pecadora (2003), and La Meua Filla Sóc Jo (2005) . Also, Santos was the scenic director of Il Barbiere de Seviglia (2000).

 

All these works have been performed at several festivals and theaters, e.g., como el Edinburgh International Festival, Festival de Automne de Paris; Festival de Otoño de Madrid; Teatre Lliure & TNC de Cataluña; Sydney's Opera House, Palau de la Música de Barcelona, Berlin's Hebbel Theater, TNP de Lyon, Parc de La Villette Paris, Antigua Nave de Talleres Generales de Sagunto, Festival de Teatro de Mérida...

Santos has been commissioned for different special compositions, such as the Fanfares of Olympic Ceremonies for Barcelona '92 or the Fanfare for 2001 Musicians for the opening of the 2001 Biennal of Arts in Valencia. Besides, his career is jam-packed with awards and grants, e.g., Deutcher Akademie in Berlin (1986), Premi Ciutat de Barcelona for International Projection (1996), Premi Ciutat de Barcelona of Music (1993), Creu Sant Jordi of Catalunya's Generalitat (1999) FAD (1998), Premi Nacional de Composició de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1990), Premio MAX for the best soundtrack (2000), Premio de la Crítica de Barcelona for Ricardo i Elena as the best musical show, Premio MAX 2001 for the best composition and musical direction for Ricardo i Elena, Premio MAX 2002 for the best musical compositionfor La Pantera Imperial, Premio MAX 2003 for musical direction and musical composition for Sama Samaruck Suck Suck, Premio MAX 2005 for the best musical show, best musical direction and best composition for El Compositor, la Cantant, el Cuiner i la Pecadora ...

In addition to his scenic and musical productions, his interest in plastic arts, clearly shown in his scenographies with Mariaelena Roque, led him to exhibit his photos and poetic texts in different museums and art galleries, many of them being inspired by his own performances.