Prieto began playing the cello at age four, studying under the instruction of Hungarian cellist Imre Hartman, and also with the Mexican cellist Manuel Garnica Fierro.
Prieto was a longtime friend of Igor Stravinsky. When Stravinsky returned to Russia in 1962 after a fifty-year absence, he was accompanied in Moscow by Prieto, who was at that time studying at the Moscow State University in Russia. He also knew Shostakovich and has premiered his first Cello Concerto in different cities in Mexico as well as in Spain.
He continued his instruction with Pierre Fournier in Geneva and Leonard Rose in New York. He also studied engineering and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),5 MIT later appointed him in 1993 as a member of its department of music and theater arts visiting committee.
He has played with orchestras from all over the world, the Royal Philharmonic in London, the Chamber Orchestra of the European Union, the American Symphony Orchestra in New York, the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra, the Spanish Radio, and Television Orchestra, the Irish National Orchestra, the MAV Budapest Orchestra, and many others. He has been invited to many of the world's most prestigious halls, such as Carnegie Hall6 and Lincoln Center in New York,7 Kennedy Center in Washington; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles; Roy Thomson in Toronto; Barbican Hall and Wigmore Hall in London; Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel in Paris; Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia; Auditorio Nacional in Madrid; The Beijing and Shanghai Concert Halls; the Europalia, Granada, Berlin Festivals, etc.8
He was appointed Honorary Member of the Fine Arts Advisory Council of the University of Texas at Austin.
From 1995 to 2010, he was chairman of the Foundation of the Conservatory of Las Rosas, the oldest conservatory of the Americas and Mexico's most ambitious music education project.
Every three years, the National Council for the Arts of Mexico and the Las Rosas Conservatory organize the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, so named in recognition of his career and work in promoting and enriching Latin American cello music.
In recent years, he played a series of concerts with Yo-Yo Ma in Mexico, Caracas, New Orleans, Chicago, Spain and Cuba.9
Prieto has recorded over 100 works and written ten books: Russian Letters, Around the World with the Cello, From the USSR to Russia, The Adventures of a Cello –translated into Portuguese, Russian, and English- Paths and Images of Music, Five Thousand Years of Words (with a foreword by Carlos Fuentes); Throughout China with the Cello with a foreword by Yo-Yo Ma; Dmitri Shostakovich, genius and drama; Short history of music in Mexico, and My musical tours around the world. Music in Mexico and autobiographical notes. Some have been translated into English, Russian and Portuguese and have appeared in audiobook form.
In 2011, he was elected to the Mexican Academy of Language.10 In 2012, he was elected an honorary member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language and, in 2016, of the Chilean Academy of Language.
Espejos (Mirrors)
(urtext digital classics jbcc 015)
Le Grand Tango
(urtext digital classics jbcc 014)
Dmitri Shostakovich. Sonatas
(urtext digital classics jbcc 123)
Conciertos y Chôro
(urtext digital classics jbcc 023)
Azul y Verde (Blue and Green)
(urtext digital classics jbcc 024)
Aprietos
(urtext digital classics jbcc 045)
Tres siglos: tres obras para violonchelo y orquesta
(urtext digital classics jbcc 178)
Tres conciertos para cello y orquesta
(urtext digital classics jbcc 083)
Sonatas y danzas de México
(urtext digital classics jbcc 033)
Del barroco y del romanticismo al siglo XXI
(urtext digital classics jbcc 093)
From Bach to Piazzolla
(urtext digital classics jbcc 101)
Seven world premieres
(urtext digital classics jbcc 183)
Bach vol. I
(PMG CLASSICS DIGITAL 092104)
Bach vol. II
PMG CLASSICS DIGITAL 092106)
Sonatas y Fantasías
(urtext digital classics jbcc 017)
Conciertos para el fin del milenio
(urtext digital classics jbcc 047)
Mexican Cellist Carlos Prieto, Classical Performer, Musician, Author http://www.carlosprieto.com ↩
Page, Tim (19 February 1984). "MUSIC: DEBUTS IN REVIEW". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-24. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/19/arts/music-debuts-in-review-256999.html ↩
The Adventures of a Cello, by Carlos Prieto http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/priadv.html ↩
Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition Winners Announced Archived February 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine https://www.allthingsstrings.com/News/News/Carlos-Prieto-International-Cello-Competition-Winners-Announced ↩
Carlos Prieto: Around the World With the Cello http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/prieto-ap.shtml ↩
MUSIC: DEBUTS IN REVIEW Feb. 19, 1984 https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/19/arts/music-debuts-in-review-256999.html ↩
Review/Music; 3 Concerts Conclude Series of Mexican Work January 13, 1991 https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/13/arts/review-music-3-concerts-conclude-series-of-mexican-work.html ↩
"CIdaho State University to present renowned cellist Carlos Prieto in special concert May 9 at Stephens Performing Arts Center". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2014-01-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20140202111107/http://www2.isu.edu/headlines/?p=4397 ↩
Yo Yo ma and Carlos Prieto at INBA, 11-01-13 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtK0xR2fDkg ↩
https://academia.org.mx/academicos-2024/item/carlos-prieto-2?category_id=3500 https://academia.org.mx/academicos-2024/item/carlos-prieto-2?category_id=3500 ↩
"Brouwer and Prieto Receive Ambassador Gilberto Bosque Award". Arte por Excelencias. Retrieved 2018-11-28. http://www.arteporexcelencias.com/en/award/brouwer-and-prieto-receive-ambassador-gilberto-bosque-award ↩