Carmen Gragera Salas

Born in Badajoz, Spain, in 1997. Since 2020, she studies at the Reina Sofía School of Music’s Fundación BBVA Viola Chair with Professor Diemut Poppen. She has been granted scholarships by Grupo Timón/Jesús de Polanco and Fundación Albéniz.

She began her music studies at the age of 6 at the Hermanos Berzosa Professional Conservatory in Cáceres. In 2015 she entered Madrid’s Royal Conservatory, where she studied with Luis Llácer and Alan Kovacs. She has also attended masterclasses by Joaquín Riquelme, Josep Puchades, Emile Cantor, Richard Wolfe, Marjolein Dispa, Fermina Lermer, Christoph Fassbender, Félix Schwarz, Nils Mönkemeyer, Antoine Tamestit, Oliver Wille, Tabea Zimmermann, and Krzysztof Chorzelski (string ensembles). She has also completed her training with conductors such as Michael Sanderling, Manfred Honeck, Christoph Esenbach, Pablo González, Andrés Salado, and José Luis Temes.

She has participated at the academy of the Schleswig-Holstein music festival (Germany) and has performed with the Youth Orchestra of Extremadura and the Orchestra of Extremadura, after successfully passing the final auditions for the viola position, orchestra for which she has been a soloist in 2023.

As a student of the School, she has performed with the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado, David Aflham and Juanjo Mena; the Fundación EDP Camerata under the baton of Giovanni Guzzo and Paul Goodwin; within the Soloists of the 21st century series; at the Casa Museo de la Moneda in Madrid and at the Sociedad Filarmónica de Burgos. In 2021 she participated in the 30th anniversary tour of the School with the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, with whom she performed at Madrid's Teatro Real, at Bratislava's Reduta Hall, at Budapest's Liszt Ferenc Academy and at Vienna's Musikverein. She has been part of the Dvořák and the Puertos del Estado Haendel quartets and of the Saint-Saëns Ensemble.