Josep

Josep Ricart Matas

Barcelona , 27 d'octubre de 1893
Barcelona , 24 d'agost de 1978

Performer i Musicologist

Cellist and musicologist. He began his music education with his mother, Carme Matas. He studied cello at the Escola Municipal de Música of Barcelona with Josep Soler, and later in Paris (1912-1914). After an intense concert life around Europe departing from Paris and London (1920-1933), an illness in his fingers forced him to retire. He returned to Barcelona and collaborated with Gerhard in the restoration of scores in the Biblioteca de Catalunya and participated in Angles’s La música a Catalunya fins al segle XIII. He became cello professor (1942) and folklore professor (1954) at the Conservatory of Music. In 1943, he began the preparation of the Museu de la Música, which he directed until retirement. He was linked to institutions devoted to musicology and published prominent books such as the Diccionario biográfico de la Música (1956) and the translation and adaptation of Francesc Brunet's Diccionario de la música, and also collaborated in the Diccionario de la música Labor. The Josep Ricart i Matas Musicological Research and Documentation Institute was created after him.