Carlos Molina (born 1946 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban guitarist and professor.
Academic background
Carlos Molina is an acclaimed Cuban guitarist, lauded as founder of the Cuban Guitar School. He studied music at Hubert de Blanck Conservatory and the Amadeo Roldán National Conservatory in Havana, Cuba. He was a disciple of Isaac Nicola and graduated in 1969, from both the National Conservatory and from the Law School at the Havana University. At a later time, Molina continued his professional training as a classical guitarist with Abel Carlevaro, Alirio Díaz, and Alberto Ponce.
Work as guitarist
In 1970, closely following his graduation, Carlos Molina won the First Prize at the National Guitar Competition and subsequently went on a concert tour through several European cities. Since then, he has performed in more than twenty countries, at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Major Hall, the Dvorak Hall of Prague, the Ateneo of Madrid, the Chopin Hall of Warsaw, the Zeneakademia of Budapest, the Hall of Mirrors at the Palatial Palace in Bratislava, the Salle du Conservatoire d’Orleans, the Sala Carlos Chávez in Mexico and the Teatro Amadeo Roldán in Cuba, among many others. For two years, Molina toured worldwide as solo guitarist of principal ballerina Alicia Alonso and the Cuban National Ballet.
Molina has frequently shared the stage with famous guitarists such as Leo Brouwer, Turibio Santos, Alirio Díaz, Benjamin Verdery, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, and Nikita Koshkin. He has also participated in international guitar festivals at Pescara, Potenza, Brno, Rust, Córdoba, Hondarribia, Vélez-Málaga, Aranda del Duero, Linares, Coria, Bordeaux, Limousin, Vendôme, Esztergom, Rotenburg, Bratislava, Stockholm and Fribourg. Carlos Molina has premiered many pieces dedicated to him. In 1968, Cuban famous composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer created at his request "Canticum," a composition in which he included avant-garde techniques never used before in the guitar repertoire. A list of composers that have dedicated pieces to Molina include the Russian Nikita Koshkin (guitar duo Return of the Winds – 2002) as well as Olivier Chassain, Gérard Drozd, Roberto Fabbri, Jon Christopher Nelson, Orlando Jacinto García, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Timothy Melbinger, Antonino Hernández Lisazo, Armando Rodriguez Ruidiaz, Carlos Atilano, and Luis Manuel Molina (Molina's brother), with his Capricho Místico para una Guitarra Solitaria.
Didactical work
Carlos Molina began teaching at the National Conservatory of Havana soon after his graduation in 1969 and in 1975 he established History of the Guitar as an obligatory class. He was appointed as guitar professor at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 1976, and became Chairman of the guitar department two years later.
From 1973 to 1975, Molina wrote, directed and produced a live television series in Cuba titled Cinco Líneas y Cuatro Espacios (Five Lines and Four Spaces), an educational music program that covered aspects of music in general.
Molina has published various articles about the guitar, beginning in 1971 with a series for La Gaceta de Cuba, the official magazine of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, UNEAC). In 1976, he published articles in Revista Bohemia, Revista Verde Olivo, and the National Library publications. In the United States he has published two articles in the Guitar Review (1988), and in Spain he published La Guitarra en la Historia from the Colección Bordón, Córdoba (1999).
Starting in 1975 at the Havana University, the Biblioteca Nacional, and the Casa de las Américas in Cuba, Molina has presented over seventy lectures internationally, on subjects that range from the history of the guitar to its composers and technique. He has also lectured at the Congreso de Intelectuales Cubanos in Madrid; at the Arizona State University; Florida International University; Rotenberg International Festival in Germany; Laval University in Quebec; National Guitar Summer Workshop in New Milford, CT; Festival Internacional de Córdoba and Festival de Coria in Spain; Rust International Festival in Austria; and at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.