Carlos Molina

Recognized guitarist and professor.

He studied music at the Hubert de Blanck and Amadeo Roldán conservatories in Havana, Cuba. He graduated in guitar with professor Isaac Nicola in 1969, and simultaneously as a lawyer from the Law School of the University of Havana. Later, Molina continued his professional training as a classical guitarist with Leo Brouwer, Abel Carlevaro, Alirio Díaz and Alberto Ponce.

In 1970, shortly after his graduation, Carlos Molina won first prize in the National Guitar Competition and subsequently toured concert halls through various European cities. Since then, he has performed in more than twenty countries, in prestigious concert halls such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Major Hall, the Dvorak Hall in Prague, the Ateneo of Madrid, the Chopin Hall in Warsaw, the Zeneakademia in Budapest, the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Bratislava, the Salle du Conservatoire d'Orleans, the Carlos Chávez Hall in Mexico and the Teatro Amadeo Roldán in Cuba, among many others.

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, such as those in Pescara, Potenza, Brno, Rust, Córdoba, Hondarribia, Vélez in Málaga, Aranda del Duero, Linares, Coria, Bordeaux, Limousin, Vendôme, Esztergom, Rotenburg, Bratislava, Stockholm and Fribourg.

Carlos Molina has premiered numerous pieces dedicated to him. In 1968, the renowned composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer created at his request the piece "Canticum," a composition in which he included avant-garde elements that had never before been used in the guitar repertoire.

A partial list of composers who have dedicated pieces to Molina includes Russian Nikita Koshkin (Return of the Winds – 2002 for guitar duo) as well as Olivier Chassain, Gerard Drozd, Roberto Fabbri, Jon Christopher Nelson, Orlando Jacinto García, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Timothy Melbinger, Antonino Hernández Lisazo, Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz, Carlos Atilano, and Luis Manuel Molina (his own brother), with his Mystic Caprice for a Solitary Guitar.

Carlos Molina began teaching at the National Conservatory of Havana shortly after his graduation in 1969, and in 1975 he established Guitar History as a mandatory class within the curriculum. Molina was appointed guitar professor at the Superior Institute of Art (ISA) in 1976, and Director of the Guitar Department two years later.

From 1973 to 1975, Molina wrote, directed and produced in Cuba a live television series called Five Lines and Four Spaces, an educational program that covered aspects of music in general.

Carlos Molina has published several articles on the guitar, beginning in 1971 with a series for Gaceta de Cuba, the official publication of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). In 1976, he published several articles in Bohemia and Verde Olivo magazines, as well as in National Library publications. In the United States he has published two articles in Guitar Review (1988), and in Spain La guitarra en la historia by the Colección Bordón de Córdoba (1999).

Beginning in Cuba (1975), through the University of Havana, the National Library and the Casa de Las Américas, Molina has presented more than seventy lectures throughout the world, on subjects ranging from the history of the guitar to its technique and repertoire. He has also participated as a lecturer at the Congress of Cuban Intellectuals in Madrid; Arizona State University, Florida International University, the Rotenberg International Festival in Germany, Laval University in Quebec; the National Guitar Summer Workshop in New Milford, CT, the International Festival of Córdoba and the Festival of Coria in Spain, the Rust International Festival in Austria; and at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Molina has been a member of the guitar faculty at Miami-Dade College since 1983, shortly after establishing his residence in the United States.

In 1987 he created the guitar program at Florida International University, where he served as a professor for eleven years. Also in 1987, he founded the Miami Classical Guitar Society, an organization dedicated to promoting the art and appreciation of classical guitar within the Miami community, and produced a series of thirty-seven radio programs titled Tertulia Musical, for Radio Martí, in which he presented various aspects of Cuban music.

Molina has offered master classes and summer courses at the universities of Veracruz (Mexico), Hondarribia, Bisceglie, Bordeaux, Brno, Perigueux, among others. He has participated as a faculty member at the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Connecticut.

For several years, Carlos Molina has participated as a judge in international competitions such as those of the Guitar Foundation of America at Oberlin University, Mérida, La Jolla, Houston, Quebec and San Antonio, Bari in Italy, UTD in Dallas, Rust in Austria, Coria in Spain, Vélez in Málaga, and on the island of Sardinia in Italy.

Carlos Molina has been mentioned in renowned texts and publications such as Cuban Music from A to Z by Helio Orovio (Duke University, 2004); Dictionary of Spanish and Hispano-American Music (Madrid, General Society of Authors, 2000); Leo Brouwer by Isabelle Hernandez (Bogotá Colombia, 2000); Antonio Lauro by Alejandro Bruzual (Caracas, 2000); Encounter of Cuban Culture, Music by Cristobal Diaz Alaya (Madrid 1999/2000); Dictionary of Cuban Music by Helio Orovio (Colombia, 1993); Cuban Music by Cristobal Diaz Ayala (Puerto Rico 1981) and Guitar Lexikon by Josef Powrozniak (Poland 1976). In 1996, the Board of Commissioners of Miami-Dade County declared May 31st as "Master Carlos Molina Day."

Based in the USA since 1982, he has maintained an intense career as a concert guitarist and guitar professor since 1969. Founder of the Cuban School of Guitar, he has performed as a soloist and with symphony and chamber orchestras in prestigious concert halls in Cuba, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Martinique.

In 1970, he won 1st prize in the National Competition held in Cuba. Since then he has been invited as a concert performer to important international guitar festivals, as well as professor, lecturer and competition judge. In his artistic career, he has shared concerts with figures such as Turibio Santos, Alirio Díaz, Leo Brouwer, Benjamin Verdery, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Olivier Chassain and Nikita Koshkin.

In 1976 he organized and directed the First Cuban National Guitar Festival. In 1987, now in the USA, he founded The Miami Classical Guitar Society, which he presides over. In 1991 and 2002 he directed in Miami the Guitar Foundation of America International Festival, the North American organization that brings together guitarists from the USA.

As an educator he has had a fruitful career that begins as professor and Department Chair at the Havana Conservatory, continues at Cuba's Superior Institute of Art, and culminates in the USA at Miami-Dade College and Florida International University. Additionally, he offers master classes at conservatories, universities and festivals in the USA and throughout Europe. Likewise, he has published articles in specialized magazines in Cuba, the United States and Spain.

In 2009, Molina was honored with the Master Alirio Díaz Order, the highest guitar award in Venezuela, and in 2007 with a Lifetime Award: Premio Chitaristico Citta di Fiuggi, in Italy, alongside Alirio Díaz, Leo Brouwer and Carlos Carfagna.

With a stage career spanning more than 40 years, Molina has performed in prestigious halls such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the St. Petersburg Major Philharmonic, the Dvorak Hall in Prague, the Ateneo of Madrid, Chopin Hall in Warsaw, Zeneakademia in Budapest, Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Bratislava, Salle du Conservatoire d'Orleans, Carlos Chávez Hall in Mexico, Teatro Amadeo Roldán in Cuba, among many others. He has shared concerts with Alirio Díaz, Leo Brouwer, Turibio Santos, Benjamin Verdery, Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Nikita Koshkin, and has traveled around the world as a solo guitarist for prima ballerina Alicia Alonso and the National Ballet of Cuba.

Molina is considered the founder of the Cuban School of Guitar, one of the most distinguished instrumental schools worldwide.