ABEL TOMÀS
Abel Tomas, violin
Abel Tomas Realp was born in 1980 and began to play the violin at the age of four. He studied with Zakhar Bron and Serguei Fatkouline at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia from 1995 through 1998 and continued his studies in Cologne with Viktor Tretyakov at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.
A prizewinner at various competitions, Abel won First Prize in 1993 at the International Competition for Young Soloists in Córdoba, Argentina, and First Prize in 1994 at the City of Manresa competition. As soloist, Abel appeared in 1992 with the Orchestra of Empordá, in 1996 under the batons of James Judd and Zubin Mehta with the Chamber Orchestra of the Escuela Reina Sofia, and in 2000 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Barcelona.
As a recitalist, he has appeared with pianist Juan Carlos Garvayo and has been heard on Spanish National Radio as well as Catalunya Radio. Abel has studied chamber music with Walter Levine, Veronika Hagen, Rainer Schmidt, Harald Schoneweg, the Alban Berg Quartet, Sadao Harada, Christophe Coin and György Kúrtag. He has collaborated in chamber music performances with musicians such as Gérard Caussé, Marta Gulyás, Suguro Ito and Eldar Nebolsin.
At the age of 16, Abel was a founding member of the Cuarteto Casals, which has subsequently performed in the most important halls throughout Europe, North America, Latin America and Japan. The quartet records exclusively for the Harmonia Mundi label, where he can be heard playing first and second violin on renditions of quartets by Arriaga, Debussy, Zemlinsky, Mozart, Ravel, Toldrá, Turina and Brahms.
Abel is currently Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and has previously taught at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón and Musikene in San Sebastian.