Carlos Molina
Classical Guitar Instructor

SoBe Music Institute
at the Historic Carl Fisher Cloubhouse
2100 Wasington Avenue
Miami Beach, Fl 33139
305 674-9220

Teaching:

• SoBe Music Institute (Miami's Institute for Performing Arts) - Guitar Instructor (2007- Current)

Biography:

• Carlos Molina began his performing career in 1969, after graduating from the National Conservatory of Music. That same year, he also graduated from the University of Havana's School of Law. In 1970, Molina won First Prize at the National Guitar Competition in Cuba and began his first tour of Europe upon receiving the award. Since then, he has been performing worldwide, offering concerts in more than twenty countries besides his native Cuba, including the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Mexico, Martinique, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Venezuela. Molina has been featured in some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, including Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), the Metropolitan Opera House (New York), the Philarmonia Theater (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Dvorak Hall (Prague), Chopin Hall (Warsaw), the Ateneo (Madrid), the Zeneakademia (Budapest), the Hall of Mirrors (Bratislava), and many others.

  Throughout his career, Molina has shared the stage with masters such as Alirio Diaz, Turibio Santos, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Leo Brouwer, Benjamin Verdery, and Nikita Koshkin. He has been guest artist in some of the most important international guitar festivals, including those of Córdoba, Hondarribia, Vélez-Málaga, Potenza, Brno, Bordeaux, Limousin, Vendome, Québec, Esztergom, Martinique, Rotenburg, Bratislava, Linares, Stockholm, Fribourg and most recently Rust (Austria), Bisceglie (Italy), and Coria (Spain).

  In 1968, Cuban composer/guitarist Leo Brouwer dedicated him the piece "Canticum," a work considered to be the first avant-garde composition written for the instrument. In recent years, other notable composers, such as the Russian Nikita Koshkin, have also dedicated pieces to him.

  As a pedagogue, Molina's career as a teacher began at the National Conservatory in Havana. In 1976, he was appointed Head of the Guitar Department at University of Havana's Superior School of the Arts. Upon his arrival to the U.S., since 1983, he has been on the faculty of Miami Dade College. In 1987 he started the guitar program at Florida International University. Molina offers master classes at universities and conservatories in the U.S. and Europe. In recent years, he has offered courses in Italy, France, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Haart School of Music, and other educational institutions. He has been guest faculty of the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Connecticut in two occasions.

  Most recently, Molina has been invited as juror for international guitar competitions of the Guitar Foundation of America in Mérida (Yucatán), La Jolla, Houston, San Antonio, and Québec. He has also served as a juror several times in Coria, Extremadura, and Vélez-Málaga, Spain. This year, he has served in Rust (Austria), Bari (Italy), and the University of Texas in Dallas.

  In November 1991, he organized and directed the GFA International Convention, which took place in Miami, Florida. In October 2002, he was again the director of this event, known as "Sun Waves Guitar Fest", hosted by Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus. He is presently organizing another major international event, which will take place in the summer at Miami Dade College.