Artistic Direction

With over 35 years of experience in chamber music, Carmen is a pianist and teacher, pursuing the latter as Professor of Chamber Music at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Valencia since 1990.

Born in León, where she began her musical studies, she gained her higher diploma in Piano and Chamber Music at the Real Conservatorio Superior in Madrid, later broadening her training with a range of teachers in Spain and abroad. Interested in different pedagogical approaches, she was awarded a scholarship (1988) to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (USA), where she studied Comparative Music Methodology in depth.

As a pianist, she has given recitals both as a soloist and with various ensembles, and has recorded for Radio Clásica, RNE. Her interest in musical communication and outreach led her to direct and present a radio programme devoted to chamber music, “Sala de Cámara”, on ACM Radio in Valencia from 2005 to 2008. She has worked in music management and advisory roles on various projects, coordinating and directing chamber music series with a range of institutions.

Her teaching has taken her to give masterclasses at conservatoires and institutions in Spain and abroad, among them the Conservatorio “Santa Cecilia” in Rome, the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim, the Conservatorio “C. Monteverdi” in Bolzano, the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon, and the conservatoires of Naples and Trieste.

She is a member of the current board of FestClásica (the Spanish Association of Classical Music Festivals).

She has directed the Festival Internacional de Música de Cámara “Fundación MonteLeón”, based in León (Spain), since its creation in 2010.