It was on a rainy night in October (2005), at Moto, a unique motorcycle-themed bar and restaurant, located under a subway overpass in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Colorado Magazine Online discovered him, while he performed with his trio and dazzled the patrons with his unique blend of jazz, tango, classical and celtic music.
Victor is the creator of a new technique for the accordion called “chord approach on both hands,” which creates new rhythms and rich, elaborate harmonies.
Born in Orense (Spain) in 1975, Victor Prieto began playing the accordion at the age of nine. He studied classical accordion at the Orense Conservatory in Spain, and took harmony, arranging and improvisation classes at Estudio Escola de Musica in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
He then pursued a performance major in accordion under the direction of Joanne Brackeen at the Berklee College of Music.
While at Berklee Victor became friends with one of his mentors, Oscar Stagnaro, who introduced him to some of the musicians he has subsequently performed with - Paquito D’Rivera, Diego Urcola, Mark Walker, David Sammuels, Raul Jaurena, and Lionel Louke.
After graduation from from Berklee, Victor moved to New York City, where he became the Jazz Accordion Professor at the Brooklyn Conservatory.
Victor is a recipient of more than twenty
coveted awards, including the first prize at the Citta De Catelfidardo Jazz
Competition in Italy, the Creative Performer award from the Spanish Association
of Artists and Performers, and the first prize at CMZK’s
Concourse of Composition in Argentina.
Victor now lives and performs in New York City. He also teaches Master Accordion Classes in the U.S. and abroad - in Spain, Italy and Portugal, and he has recently introduced his first CD, "Persistencia," which was produced by Fox Haven jazz records.
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