Carmen Collado López

Graduated as Choral Director and Specialist in Pedagogical Methodology.

She was born in La Habana. She studied at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música de La Habana (now Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán). She completed her studies at the Escuela Superior de Música de Hans Eisler in Berlín, where she obtained a Diploma as Choral Director and Specialist in Pedagogical Methodology. She also obtained a Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance.

Since then, she has developed extensive artistic activity through her participation in numerous musical events as a director and performer, jury member and lecturer, both in Latin America and Europe. Her meritorious work as director and teacher over more than forty years has been recognized with important awards, prizes and national distinctions.

From 1960 to 1962, she was assistant director of the children's choir at the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí. From 1962 to 1965, she also assisted in directing the choir of the Conservatorio Municipal de Música. She organized and directed the first massive choral activity with amateur artists in 1965. Founder in 1966 of the Choral Department of the Dirección de Escuelas de Arte in Cuba.

She participated in the design and development of plans and programs for the specialties of Choral Singing and Choral Direction at all levels of education in the country (elementary, secondary and higher). She founded and directed several choirs, among which stand out children's choirs (1963-1968), female choirs (1972-1983) and mixed choirs (1971-1983) of the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán, those of the ISA (1976 to present) and of the Universidad de La Habana (1986-1994), as well as the Coros Universitario de aficionados, the Amantis, sponsored by the Centro Nacional de Música de Concierto (1994 to present) and the Polifónico de La Habana of the Centro Provincial de la Música "Antonio María Romeu" from 1999 to present.

She has directed choirs in Santo Domingo, Nicaragua, Bulgaria, Alemania and Venezuela. She has served on juries and given lectures at national events in Latin America and Europe. Cuban composers such as Leo Brouwer, Roberto Valera and Electo Silva, among others, have written and dedicated works for the choral groups she has directed.

She has sustained work as a pedagogue and advisor in various centers and institutions. She complements her work as active Director of the Amantis and Polifónico de La Habana choirs, Full Professor of Choral Direction in the Facultad de Música of the ISA and is Head of Department of teachers of this specialty and Singers of Choirs in the same faculty. She is a member of the Comité Cubano del Consejo Internacional de Música de la UNESCO and a board member of the Asociación Cubana de Coros.

Awards
She holds the Orden al Mérito Pedagógico.
Medal for Education in Cuba, 1983.
Special Prize from the University for her cultural achievements in 1999.
Medalla José Tey, 2000.
Premio Nacional de Cultura Comunitaria, 2003.
Medalla Alejo Carpentier, 2003.

Work
Works and publications:
She has designed and developed methodological plans for teaching in Choral Direction and Choral Singing at all levels of the specialized music education system in Cuba.

Discography
Aire nocturno, Beatriz Corona Rodríguez (8013), 2002. (CD-UNICORNIO) in collective.

Source: EcuRed