Javier Iglesias Martin
Artistic Director and Pre-College Teacher
Spanish cellist Javier Iglesias-Martin combines his busy performing career in Europe and America with his passion for education. Born in Madrid, Javier moved to the United States in 2010 to pursue his studies in music at prestigious institutions such as the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, the New England Conservatory, and a doctorate at the University of Southern California. His main teachers include world-renowned cellists and pedagogues Amit Peled, Paul Katz and Ralph Kirshbaum.
Javier is a laureate of prestigious competitions including the first prize in the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition, the Brookline Concerto Competition, the Baltimore Music Club Competition, the Nathaniel Rosen Strings Prize, the “Villa de Llanes” International Competition in Spain, and the Juventudes Musicales scholarship personally granted by the Queen of Spain herself. He has also participated in festivals such as Ravinia Steans Institute, Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program, the Heifetz Institute, “Pablo Casals” Festival in Prades, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and was accepted as a fellow for the Piatigorsky Cello Festival.
Based in Los Angeles, Javier is an active chamber musician and a regular member of Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra and Delirium Musicum with whom he recently recorded their debut album with Warner Classics. As an educator, Javier is regularly invited to work with students at La Cañada and Diamond Bar High Schools, YOLA, Fried Music, and the California Orchestra Teachers Association. From 2016-2022 he was a teaching assistant at the University of Southern California teaching cello and chamber music to non-major and minor students. He is currently the Adjunct Professor of Cello at Pepperdine University and is excited to have been named the new Artistic Director at SOL-LA Music Academy in Santa Monica.
