Lorena Cantó Woltèche is a Violist & Graphic designer based in London since 2016. Scroll down to find out more!
Violist
Lorena Cantó is a classical violist based in London. Through her years of musical study, both at the Yehudi Menuhin School (UK) and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, she has had the opportunity to play as a soloist in venues such as the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Wigmore Hall, as well as appear in BBC 3 “in tune”, Classic FM and Radio Clásica (Spain).
Lorena has won several prizes including First Prizes at the Charleston International Music Competition 2022 (USA) and the String Competition Online 2022 (Poland). Prior to this, she graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2020 with a Diploma for Exceptional Performance.
Over the years, she has learned with numerous viola teachers, such as Leo De Neve, Boris Kucharsky, Oscar Perks, Lawrence Power, Joaquín Riquelme, Maxim Rysanov, Ervin Schiffer, Félix Schwartz and Barbara Westphal; as well as with exceptional chamber coaches such as Ian Brown, Krysztof Chorzelski, Garfield Jackson, Ralph Kirschbaum, John Myerscough, Caroline Palmer, Rainer Schmidt and Oliver Wille.
Since 2017, Lorena pursues a career as a chamber musician with the Jubilee String Quartet and the Duo Fabulae. Following their critically acclaimed first album, in late 2022, the Jubilee quartet released their second album with Rubicon Classics. Also in 2022, with duo Fabulae, AIMA competition (Aus) and BTHVN Wien, as well as granted the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Futures Fund Award 2022.
Lorena thanks the Stradivari Trust for the loan of a viola by Peter Greiner.
Graphic designer
Lorena Cantó is a Spanish and Belgian violist and graphic designer based in London. Since 2021 she has been taking a two-year Master’s programme at the Open College of Arts. Tutored by Barry Hurd and Emma Powell, she found her niche in raising issues within the classical music industry. A recurring theme in her work.
Brought up in a musical environment, Lorena started playing the viola at the age of five. At the age of 16 she moved to the UK to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School where she met artist-in-residence Patsy Belmonte and started developing her skills in drawing and painting. As a result of her artistic commitment to the school, in 2016 she was awarded the Brackenbury Art Prize.
Upon graduation, Lorena moved to London where she began her Bachelor studies in viola performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. This represented a new stage in her career, with the discovery of Barbican’s brutalist landscape and the art of graphic design. Fascinated by the similarities between sound and image, she started researching and experimenting with the topic of visual storytelling and translation.
Today, Lorena combines her life as an active performer with her path as a graphic designer. Lorena’s work is characterised by its boldness and minimalism, inspired by the expressionist work of William Kentridge and the objectivity of Alexander Steinweiss.