Douglas Vistel

Cuban cellist who has resided in Germany for more than two decades, he is one of the instrumentalists invited to the V Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival. The artist is visiting La Habana.

Born in Santiago de Cuba into a family of musicians, he began studying Cello at the Conservatorio Esteban Salas with professors Sarvelio Crespo, John Givorkian and Alla Pajómova among others.

Vistel began his musical career in his native Santiago de Cuba, studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) where he was a student of Alina Neyra, Michail Kustov and Alexander Zhirov. Award winner of the national competitions Alejandro Garcia Caturla and Amadeo Roldán, he received a scholarship to pursue higher education at the Conservatorio P.I.Tchaikovski in Moscow, where he graduated in 1991 under the mentorship of Prof. Maria Tchaikovskaia.

Douglas Vistel was a semifinalist in the international competitions "Juventudes Musicales de Belgrado" and "P.I.Tchaikovski" in Moscow. He also received masterclasses in Cello from professor Daniil Shafran (Russia), chamber music with Prof. Menahem Pressler (Trio Beaux Art), and quartet with Dimitri Shebalin (Borodin Quartet) and Serguei Petschugin (Shostakovich Quartet) among others.

As a soloist he has performed in concert halls throughout Europe and Latin America with orchestras such as the Filarmónica de Samara, the Chamber Orchestra of the Filarmonica de Astrajan, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Matanzas, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Santiago de Cuba, the Solistas de la Habana, the Camerata Esteban Salas, the Orquesta de la Opera de Yekaterinenburg, the Orquesta de Cuerdas Pulsadas del Estado de Berlin.

Douglas Vistel's pedagogical work has led him to teach Cello and Chamber Music courses at conservatories in Germany, Spain, Cuba and Mexico. He has also been a jury member for the international competitions "Gaspar Cassadó" (Spain) and "Kurt Schwaen" (Germany). Douglas Vistel has recorded for Russian television, for the Franco-German channel "Arte" and for the record label "Kreuzberg Records".

In the field of Chamber Music, Douglas Vistel has worked in the most diverse ensembles, with his most stable reference being the duo with German pianist Almuth Krausser, which, although it has changed names several times, has remained active since 1991.

Douglas is part of the Duo Cello Capriccioso, alongside his wife, German pianist Almuth Krausser-Vistel, with whom he carries forward his project in Europe.

"I have worked in orchestras," he pointed out, "but five years ago my work system was transformed, because now I have a concert hall in Berlin, dedicated entirely to music for cello." "The space, known as Vistél's CelloMusikSalon, is very special, as it has several elements that make it unique. The concerts are à la carte, and at any time of day. They are private, and can be reserved for as few as one person or as many as sixty."

"In the hall, once a month we choose the program, but regularly the public is the one who selects it, often just ten minutes before we start playing. This requires us to have an extensive repertoire. When we are not performing a concert, we are studying. The work is hard, but we love it."

"Our duo tries to go against the current. Many musicians prepare before performing, they do yoga. We defend the idea that music is made spontaneously. We perform sonatas, concertos; we take on classics like Bach, Brahms, Beethoven..."

"There are compositions of mine that I perform in the hall. Cuban musicians really haven't written much for cello, but there are creators like Leo Brouwer, who wrote a sonata for solo cello; also Calixto Álvarez."

Douglas Vistel grew up strongly influenced by an environment marked by sounds of Salsa and Latin Jazz, and trained in a strict conservative tradition. In his career one can identify all the hallmarks of a successful cellist. He studied at the Tschaikowsky conservatory in Moscow where he graduated with honors, plus he has been and continues to be awarded in various competitions; principal cellist in chamber and symphony orchestras, he held several positions as a guest professor and has participated in recordings and television productions.

Currently, and since 2007, Douglas Vistel has centered his artistic work on the "Cello Capriccioso" Project which, starting from the Duo of the same name and from "VISTÉL'S CelloMusikSalon," the Duo's headquarters in the center of Berlin, with innovative concepts such as Private Concerts, Concerts à la carte and Spontaneous Concerts, offers an international audience from the unusual and relaxed perspective of a personal conversation, the opportunity to approach music for Cello and to deepen their knowledge and enjoyment of the riches of this beautiful and largely unknown repertoire.

Crucial moments in Douglas Vistel's career are the opening in September 2009 of "VISTÉL'S CelloMusikSalon" - the first and currently only Concert Hall in Berlin specialized in music for Cello and the premiere of his works "Cuban Kitsch," "Son Lento" and "Lamento negro" in the chamber music concert series of the Filarmonica de Nueva York (2011)

Douglas Vistel possesses an extensive repertoire that includes among others sonatas by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Strauss, Debussy, Chostakovitsch, Prokofiew, Britten, Schnittke. Also the suites and sonatas for solo cello by Bach, Hindemith, Reger, Bloch, Zenamon, Britten are found, together with numerous concert pieces, caprices, and miniatures in the musical repertoire of this Cuban musician who, with his musical sensitivity and mastery of the stage, makes of each encounter with the public a memorable moment.