Olga & Pablo Casals

In 1958, Olga Iglesias made her debut as soloist with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, presented by Festival Casals, Inc. Two years later she received a letter from violinist Alexander Schneider with news that would change her career, Pablo Casals had chosen her as soloist for three concerts under his own baton. So began a collaboration that would shape the rest of their lives.

In December 1960, Casals premiered his oratorio of peace, El Pessebre, in Acapulco, Mexico, and began carrying it around the world as a message of brotherhood among peoples. Olga sang it for the first time in April 1962, at the American premiere held at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

From that night through the final performances conducted by the maestro, who died in 1973, Olga Iglesias was the soprano who sang El Pessebre the most. She carried it to the United Nations, to the Herodes Atticus in Athens, and to Casals' native Catalonia, along with stages in more than a dozen countries.

The collaboration reached beyond the oratorio. Under Casals' baton, Olga sang Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Haydn's The Creation at Carnegie Hall. And in the summer of 1966, at the Marlboro Festival, she recorded six of his art songs for Columbia Records with the composer himself supervising the session.

In October 2022, the Olga Iglesias Project and the Fundació Pau Casals of Catalonia signed a collaboration agreement that carries into the present the relationship Olga and the maestro cultivated in life. The agreement was signed by Anthony Cheney Guzmán for OIP and by Jordi Pardo, general director of the foundation.

The alliance seeks to develop joint cultural and educational projects, deepen knowledge of the musical relationship between the two artists, and open mutual access to the historical archives of both institutions. Among the plans is an exhibition on El Pessebre and greater awareness of the Museu Pau Casals in El Vendrell.