Testimonials

 It’s with great pleasure that I recommend conductor and oboist Rafael Palacios for conducting your Orchestra. I have known Rafael since 2013 and have had the opportunity to see closely his work as musician and to know him as a person. Rafael Palacios is part of the Baroque and Classical Music Fest at Xalapa Symphony Orchestra as Guest Conductor every year. 

The Xalapa Symphony is a very prestigious orchestra in Mexico, besides being the oldest one in the country, and it’s a great responsibility to conduct them. Rafael has done an impressive work with the orchestra and conducted for five years in a row the Baroque and Classical Music Fest each April since 2013. He is a very musical person and very serious in his preparation. As person, he is kind, transparent, eloquent and very sensitive. 

Rafael has a PhD in Music and Musicology of Paris-Sorbonne University. He is currently professor of baroque oboe at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris. 

I highly recommend him and I am sure he will be a strong conductor for your orchestra.

“The laboratory provided me with solid foundations for analyzing, substantiating, listening, understanding and interpreting music that will be useful to me throughout my life. It represents for me, a milestone in my career.

One of the most valuable things I took was the final recital. Because all the participants presented a whole landscape of affection painted with such honesty that gave the listeners the possibility to visualize what is beyond the physical body, and that is for me very beautiful.

On the other hand, the LIRI allowed me to draw the good from the bad in me. I was able to take something heavy and distressing as obsession is, and apply it to something productive and substantial as it is a deep analysis and foundation of my musical work. I was able to take something as devastating as the energy of anxiety and channel it into musical performance. I’m really excited about that.

The LIRI also helped me understand a truth within the music that I had somehow always known was there but had never seen clearly.

My viewing of music has changed and makes me think about my future in music with good eyes and very good disposition.”

Vladimir Demidov, rector of Musical College with Moscow Conservatory

“The lecture of Rafael Palacios was very interesting. It was yet another opportunity to see that we think alike, regardless of where we live and work, be it Paris or Moscow”.

Philipp Nodel, professor of Moscow Conservatory:

“.. It’s great when a good musician explains how theory may be put to practice. Rafael, being an outstanding oboe performer himself, showed young musicians how to apply rhetoric tools in baroque music. This is no less precious than reading thousands of pages of theory. I’m sure that the manual he is writing will be a great addition to the works in rhetorics that are already there”.

Marina Belova from the State Classical Academy named after Moise Maimonid:

” Thank you for a wonderful event. I think the main advantage of such seminars for young musicians is to try out several variants of performance and to get feedback from professional audience”. 

As tutor for the memoir that I wrote at the Paris Conservatory (CNSM) as part of the master’s degree, Mr. Palacios was a great help in every stage of the process, from the research to the writing and formatting of the essay. His incredible knowledge of baroque music and academic writing was indispensable. My investigation of French baroque viol music would not have been nearly as fruitful if not for his generous availability and enthusiastic interest. His expertise is equally evident in the course he teaches on baroque rhetoric, and has greatly affected how I interpret and listen to music.

My studies in the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris.

“I have studied at the Paris Conservatoire for two and a half years. It was a very fruitful time for me. Of particular value were the lessons with my teacher in the specialty – Professor Rafael Palacios.

Mr. Palacios is a unique musician and educator. He is not only an excellent oboist, but also a research scientist. His explanations are always very clear and precise. Mr. Palacios revealed to me many interesting and important features of musical interpretation that I did not even know existed. Thanks to the special method of teaching ancient music developed by Mr. Palacios, especially in the field of musical rhetoric, I understood all the variety of music of the XVIII century with its many levels of musical speech. With Rafael Palacios, we worked on many styles of the Baroque era: Italian, French, German, as well as with the Gallant style. All classes with Mr. Palacios were extremely rich in content and fruitful. Every minute of the lesson brought a discovery of something new for me.

Mr. Palacios has revealed to me many secrets of oboe reed-making. The quality of the instrument’s sound depends on the quality of the cane. Thanks to Mr. Palacios’s instructions, I started making reeds with a whole new level of understanding of what I’m doing. Thanks to Rafael Palacios, I realized that the quality of canes depends on the accuracy of measurements at all stages of the manufacturing process. This helped me improve my performance skills.

The method of Rafael Palacios allowed me to quickly correct long-standing mistakes in playing the oboe, and achieve maximum perfection in the performance of ancient music. I consider Rafael Palacios a wonderful teacher and I am very grateful to him for the time he gave me and for all the information and experience he gave me. In my opinion, the unique method of teaching oboe playing by Mr. Palacios can give a lot to modern oboists, it sheds light on many features of the performing art and offers numerous prospects for an oboist’s self-development.”

“In my experience during the Laboratory of Rhetorically Informed  Performance Practice led by Dr. Rafael Palacios, I was able to observe how, synthetically and in a pragmatic application, detecting the method and its use lead to a deep understanding of the music of Bach and Zelenka (at a intellectual but also emotional level) with interpretive tools compatible with the method of music composition of this period.

Historical Performance Practice is currently experiencing a stage in which musicians are divided – on the one hand – in which, with superficial notions of the “HIP” sound, they base extravagant interpretations and – on the other – those who have fallen into formulas, myths and understood that are opposed to the original spirit of the movement: eliminate dogmas and build from knowledge and questioning tools, not manuals, to interpret the so-called ancient music.

From my irregular knowledge of this repertoire and its interpretation, influenced by these two aspects, it was of great value to participate in a transformation of the orchestral and choral sound from day one to the effect (and affect) convincingly concretized on the day of the last concert (day six) after the meticulous work that, attentive to the literal and musical text, carried out by Rafael Palacios with heterogeneous instrumental and vocal resources in his knowledge of the repertoire, in his interpretive practice and even in his technical level (which corresponds, not surprisingly, to the type of the resources that many times, the composers of the baroque period).

This experience awakens in me the need to really delve into this current interpretive, novel even for more experienced circles like those in Europe, from the specific study of rhetorical figures and the context of their application as a method compositional and, therefore, interpretive of the repertoire in question. For me, the general atmosphere of the Laboratory was one of enthusiasm, curiosity, amazement, openness and satisfaction with the work and the result of this process.”

“I am left with various learnings from the laboratory, both theoretical knowledge and history of music as well as practical aspects within the performance. Knowing the musical rhetoric, its bases and the concepts to apply it was something totally new but that with the passing of the sessions was becoming increasingly clear, especially, seeing the practical application with my colleagues.

From this experimental dynamic, I greatly appreciate the patience they had, both the teacher when explaining, discussing and directing, and the classmates when listening to everyone’s suggestions, listening to themselves and allowing themselves to feel and communicate emotions in new ways towards others. I felt that they gave me a great gift about how to take music and my abilities, but also from any other situation in life.

At first, I perceived a certain fear and nervousness in their interpreting exercises, being observed and receiving criticism (which also seemed very constructive to everyone), but as time went on, I could see them becoming more dedicated, more concentrated, and this denotes the great result of what it is to be informed and connected with what one is doing and what one wants to communicate. I was also confused at the beginning and became uncertain as to whether I could continue with so much new information and in such detail. However, when all the concepts and the story began to land in the sounds, in the scores and in the performances given by the musicians upfront, everything became clearer and time flew much faster.

I can say that with this laboratory I can already make an obvious and even rational connection between my feelings and interpretation. I went out more awake to the sounds, more aware of my music and that of others, because regardless of the style or emotion that we seek to convey, we are all  orators and we need to make rhetoric a permanent practice.

I am infinitely grateful for your commitment and your support, and I look forward to taking a LIRI again.”

Conclussions LIRI, UNAM.

“The contents taught by Dr. Palacios at LIRI constitute an essential contribution to the analysis and interpretation of music. I consider that including rhetoric to the elaboration of contemporary musical discourse, as well as historically informed performance, is an act of integration that offers multiple benefits  to both vox and corpus of the performer.

From this artistic position, both performer and audience end up connected and enriched in a transcendent experience. Grateful for your commitment and intellectual generosity. Regards.”

In a timely manner, I consider that there this Laboratory provided many advantages, made its contribution and had an effect on me. Mainly, it aroused in me a strong and marked interest in the research of rhetoric, oratory, and their articulations within the field of music. As a guitarist, performer, and also as an aspiring music researcher (with the intention of studying a postgraduate degree in musicology), this laboratory has also given me the necessary tools for a new type of musical analysis that is more in keeping with the context of the performance. In other words, it is the perfect conjunction between the theoretical and practical fields, something that is sometimes difficult to find within the world of music and the arts in general. If I could describe my impression / opinion of the laboratory in one word, I would simply say the following: it was exquisite.”

“The week of work with the Baroque Academy was a motivating experience. Dr. Rafael Palacios brought me to it through meticulous work and  precise concepts, teaching to convey a well-grounded musical and philosophical idea.”

The laboratory seminar on rhetorically informed interpretation given by Dr. Palacios at the UNAM Faculty of Music allowed us, students in performance, to learn in the short period of two weeks the structure of rhetoric, the main figures, their uses, elaboration of rhetorical analysis among other things. This last point, of particular importance to me, confronts musicians in offering a discourse with planning that should not be omitted or supplanted by judgments based on mere intuition. This seminar, which systematized the acquisition of the elements in the first week and the implementation of these elements in the second week, stirred feelings of frustration, anger, and uncertainty that, in the course of a few days, became the phenomenon of knowing -understand-say-do.”