Class: 2015
Maricarmen Vélez Crespo
from Añasco, Puerto Rico, he began his musical studies at the Escuela Libre de Música de Mayagüez, where he studied cello and orchestra with Professors Jecksan “Pipo” Ortíz, Efraín del Pilar and Luis Millán, and music theory with Irving González. She entered the Baccalaureate program in Cello Performance at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico (CMPR) in 2010, where she was a student of Dr. Luis Miguel Rojas,
Principal Cellist of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. During his years at the CMPR, he also studied under the tutelage of Professor Emilio Colón and served for 3 years as cellist of the Miramar Quartet and the Arturo Somohano Philharmonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico. In 2016 he continued his Master's studies at the Liceu Conservatory of Music, in Barcelona, Spain. There he studied with Professor Peter Thiemann, Soloist of the Gran Teatro del Liceu Orchestra.
During his years of study, he participated in various musical improvement programs during different summers, such as the “Dalí Quartet Chamber Music Festival” in Pennsylvania, USA, “Killington Music Festival” in Vermont, USA, the “ Unbound Chamber Music Festival» in California, USA and the AIMS Festival in Solsona, Catalonia. In December 2017, he participated as an additional musician in the cello section of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and more recently, he completed a Master's degree in Orchestral Studies at the Higher Music Center of the Basque Country, Musikene, under the tutelage of the Professor Damián Martínez. As part of this program, he carried out a series of professional orchestral practices with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra.
Currently, he is a member of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, where he has served since January 2022 as Assistant Principal of Cellos.
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