| Angel Luis Castano was born
in San Sebastian, Spain, in 1969. He began to study accordion
with Agustin Santano at the age of 5 and after winning most of
the Spanish National competitions, he moved to France to improve
his studies with Max Bonnay in the Conservatory of Paris. While
there he won First Prize in the famous International Competition
for Accordion Soloists "Coupe Mondiale" in 1990, in Trossingen,
Germany. Afterwards he moved to Denmark, where he studied in the
Royal Academy of Music of Copenhagen with the late Professor Mogens
Ellegaard (specialising in Contemporary Music). He now lives in
Spain where he is consolidating his musical career and collaborates
with other composers to write music specifically for accordion.
Angel Luis Castano is a musician and performer
of the highest standard. His technical excellence serves perfectly
to express his emotional and spiritual playing through the contemporary
musical language.
Few elements of his performance (amongst others)
made the biggest impression on me:
- His performance reflects incredible inner
energy and inner strength, therefore is very convincing
- He plays with incredible tonal and form-structural
clarity. Forms of the compositions are absolutely clear, which
indicates real deep knowledge and understanding for the pieces
performed, as well as their psychological, emotional and spiritual
contents. He also "plays" with his tone remarkably well, producing
a whole spectre of different tone-colours and effects
- His "voice-leading" in such structurally
complicated compositions is amazingly clear.
A very, very impressive performance.
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