Born in Andorra in 1951, from exiled catalan parents, Lluís Claret begins his musical studies at the age of 9. His musical future will be strongly marked by his contact with great teachers as Maurice Gendron, Radu Aldulescu and Enric Casals (Pablo Casals brother) who, besides not being a cellist, will be his principal musical adviser for many years. His meetings with György Sebök, Eva Janzer and Bernard Greenhouse will be also decisive for the development of his artistic personality.
First Prizes at Casals (1976) and Rostropovitch (1977) Competitions help to project his international career to the principal capitals of Europe, America and Asia, invited by orchestras like Washington National Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, English Chamber, France National Orchestra, and others from Tokyo, Seoul, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Bamberg, Moscu, Madrid, Barcelona under the baton of Vaclav Neuman, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Pierre Boulez, Karl Münchinger, Dimitri Kitaienko, Sakari Oramo and Georges Malcom among others. Chamber music and pedagogie are an important and essential part of Lluís Claret professional activity.
He founded the Barcelona Trio (1980-1993), performs regularly with the pianists Josep-Maria Colom and Benedicte Palko and collaborates very often with other prestigious musicians at Festivals like Kuhmo, Naantali, Ernen, l’Epau, Pablo Casals (Prades), Granada, Seoul. His is actualy teaching at the “Victoria dels Angels” Music School at Sant Cugat (Barcelona) and the Toulouse Conservatory (France), and gives Master Classes in France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, USA, Japan and Korea. Together with Bernard Greenhouse he conducts a seminar at the Abbey of Fontfroide (France).
Regularly Lluís Claret is invited as Jury Member of International Competitions ( Rostropovitch-Paris, Paulo-Helsinki, Pablo Casals-Kronberg, Adam- New Zealand) and he is the Chairman at the International Cello Competition “Lluís Claret”, City of Moguer (Spain).His great interest in contemporary music brought him to a close professional collaboration with Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutoslawski, Kristoff Penderecki, Joan Guinjoan, Iannis Xenakis and Pierre Boulez.
