CARMEN ACEVEDO LUCÍO
CONDUCTOR
With a career that endorses her as one of the most important choral directors in the history of this musical genre in Puerto Rico, Professor Carmen Acevedo Lucío is the director of the Choir of the University of Puerto Rico and Coralia (formerly the Concert Choir) of the Río Piedras Campus; and the San Juan Philharmonic Choir.
Professor Acevedo earned a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. She completed studies leading to a doctoral degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Campus. In October 2004, she received an Honoris Causa doctoral degree from the Carlos Albizu University with campuses in San Juan, Mayagüez and Miami.
In 1971, she joined the San Juan Children's Choir and in 1980 she became a professor and director of the Choir in the Music Department of the University of Puerto Rico, where she later served as director of the Choir for seven years. In 1994 she was the founder of the Escolanía Coral, a chamber choir of which she was also its director until 2004, when this group ceased its functions.
Leading Coralia and the San Juan Children's Choir, Professor Acevedo-Lucío has traveled to numerous festivals
and competitions in Mexico, Argentina, the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. Among the distinctions obtained during these tours are eight first places, one third place and three awards for the best interpretation of a folkloric work.
Since 1984, she has prepared numerous works of the symphonic choral repertoire for the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and the Casals Festival, in collaborations with artists of the stature of the masters Odón Alonso, Gerard Schwartz, Margaret Hillis, Julius Rudel, Mtislav Rostropovich, Eugene Kohn, Krzysztof Penderecki, Yoav Talmi, Helmuth Rilling, Guillermo Figueroa, Maximiano Valdés and Gustavo Dudamel, among others.
Also leads the CulturArte Gala Choir of Puerto Rico, as part of the programs in which this institution has brought the biggest stars in the world of opera to the country. In this work he has prepared choirs for recitals with stars such as: Plácido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagana, Ben Hepner, Juan Diego Flores, Anita Rachvelishvili and Lawrence Brownlee.
In 1999, maestro Acevedo Lucío was selected as a member of the international jury for that year's edition - held in Puerto Rico - of Operalia, the most important competition in the world for young opera singers, founded and directed by the Spanish maestro Plácido Domingo.
Likewise, in the summer of 2010, professor Acevedo Lucío traveled to Italy to be part of the international jury of the prestigious choral competitions held in Gorizia, in May 2013 she traveled to France, where Coralia won the famous international competition Florilège Vocal de Tours, and in September 2015 she visited Cuba at the head of Coralia to present a series of concerts, together with three of its main professional choirs: Exaudi, Entrevoces and Schola Cantorum Coralina.
In February 2017, prepared the San Juan Philharmonic Choir to perform for the second time in its history the “Credo”, by the famous composer Krzysztof Penderecki – under the direction of the Polish maestro himself – on the opening night of the Casals Festival.
In March 2022, the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras Campus awarded her an Honoris Causa doctorate in Music, recognizing her long career after having achieved four decades of service at her Alma Mater.
