Marta Casals Istomin - Pau Casals

Pau Casals

Eventually, Casals Istomin was awarded a scholarship to attend the Mannes College of Music in New York City to study cello. In 1952, her uncle Rafael took the 15 year old to the Prades Festival. There she first met the Maestro Pau Casals (1876-1973), also known as Pablo Casals, who was very impressed when he heard her play. Casals recommended that she return to New York where he would accept her as a student. In 1954, Casals Istomin graduated summa cum laude from Mannes College and joined Casals in France where she became an active participant in the Prades Festival.

In 1957, she married eighty one year old Pau Casals and together they founded the Casals Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra. As Co-Chairwoman of the Board and Music Director of the Casals Festival, she became a force for the development of fine music on the island. In 1959, Casals Istomin co-founded the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. When her husband died on 1973, she took it upon herself the responsibility of running the festival. That same year she established a string instrument program for young children which has produced most of the string players for the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. She also acted as visiting cello professor in the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Casals Istomin was named Vice-President of the Pau Casals Foundation and Museum in Barcelona, Spain.