Carlos Gardels, pianist
  • Home
  • Calendar
  • Watch and Listen
  • Photo Gallery
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Compositions
Picture
"A brilliant pianist whose technique is balanced by a fire of the imagination."
-
David Dubal - Faculty, the Juilliard School, Author, Art of the Piano

His piano playing is filled with the utmost of a distinctive sound quality - it is genuinely inspired and charismatically inspiring. The meaningful sense of his interpretations translates  his natural musicianship’s intuitive power combined with a rare and profound thoughtfulness coated in masterful  craftsmanship. 
-Emile Naoumoff - Composer, Pianist, Faculty Indiana University Jacobs School of Music 

​
"His complex and varied program showcased a wide ranging array of skills from soloist to collaborator in our series"
- Antonio Damasio - Neuroscientist, Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute of the University of Southern California, event series curator. 


American pianist Carlos Gardels has performed and taught throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has established a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer, teacher, and writer. 

Born in Los Angeles of Mexican and German heritage, Mr. Gardels made his professional debut at age fifteen as a soloist in the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto with the Pasadena Youth Orchestra  in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, and made his debut appearance in Carnegie Recital Hall in 2016.  He has been awarded prizes from the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the American Protege Competition, and the National Society of Arts and Letters.

He has been invited to perform solo recitals in Paris at the American Church's Atelier Concert Series, in London at St. Martin-in-the Field's "Pianists Of the World" concert series, and has studied and performed at the Alion Baltic Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City. In the Southern California area he has soloed with the Beach Cities Symphony, Young Artist's Concert Orchestra, Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra, and performed recitals at the Richard Nixon Library, USC's Dornsife Brain and Creativity Institute, Pasadena Presbyterian Church's Music at Noon series, among others.

Mr. Gardels completed his undergraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and received a Master's Degree at Indiana University-Bloomington. His major teachers were HakSoon Swiatkowski, Jeffrey Cohen, Evelyne Brancart, and Emile Naoumoff.  Other mentors have included David Dubal,  Cyprien Katsaris, Vladimir Feltsman, John Perry and Neil Stannard.  

Also an esteemed and versatile teacher, Mr. Gardels is on the faculty of Citrus College in Glendora, CA, where he teaches class piano, applied piano, music history, and music appreciation. He has additionally developed a large and vibrant studio of private pupils in the Pasadena area of Los Angeles where he regularly prepares students for the Certificate of Merit and ABRSM exams, as well as coaches high school and college students aspiring to transfer to university and conservatory music programs, as well as children and adults who simply wish to develop as musicians.

​He regularly serves as a judge and evaluator for exams and competitions and appears frequently as a masterclass clinician.  In 2014 he was a visiting faculty member at the FaceArt Academy of Music in Shanghai.  As a composer, his 2017 piece "Late October" was a winner in the MTAC "Composers Today" competition, and his "Three Fantasies", for solo piano will be released in 2022 by Theodore Presser Music Publishing.  His articles on music and pedagogy have been featured in The Huffington Post, Clavier, and the California Music Teacher.