Regarded as “one of the virtuoso musicians of the world elite” by the international critics (“The Daily Telegraph” – 1997, London / “Ziua” – 1998, Bucharest), Melani Mestre, born in Barcelona in 1976, is nowadays internationally acclaimed because of his recent discovery in his native city, (Barcelona – 2010), of the unknown, unpremiered and unfinished Piano Concerto written by the Spanish composer Enrique Granados, which has been completed by himself and to be published by Boileau this same year.   Melani Mestre started his studies in piano following the Granados Piano Tradition through Jose A. Calvo and Alicia de Larrocha, both pupils of Granados’ pupil Frank Marshall, and later on he pursued them at the Conservatori Superior de Musica in Barcelona. He completed his studies in London with the well-known Russian pedagogue Sulamita Aronovsky (piano) and Sir Colin Davis (conducting).   He has been given advice by prestigious pianists and conductors such as Andrei Gavrilov, Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Rosa Maria Kucharski, Aquiles Delle Vigne, Lorin Maazel, Helmut Rilling, Diego Mason, Johanna McGregor, Joseph Banowetz and Leonid Brumberg, among others. At the same time, he has performed in all the major concert halls in Europe, East Countries, USA and Cuba, both as soloist and conductor with majorand leading orchestras from all over the world, such as: London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Kazan Philharmonic, National Rumanian Philharmonic, Malaga Province Symphony, Pilsen Radio Philharmonic, Berno Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Gdansk Baltic Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Philharmonic, Lviv Philharmonic, Dortmund Festival Symphony, Rivne Philharmonic and Barcelona Concert Society Orchestra, among others.   His work has received full recognition by being awarded international first prizes, among which we might point out: the First Prize and Gold Medal at the “Arrau International Piano Competition” (USA), the First Prize at the “TWIMCA of the BBC” (London) and the “Lasmo Staffa Award” (London).   Melani Mestre is current Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Lviv Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine) and the Barcelona Concert Society Orchestra, this last founded by him. At the present he combines his worldwide concert activity with teaching and musicological searching and rediscovering task about Catalan, Spanish and Ukrainian repertoires.  Melani Mestre entered the Piano Faculty of the Higher School of Music of Catalonia (ESMUC) just at 25.   Melani Mestre has recorded several CDs for the Spanish labels PICAP (the world premiere of A. Piazzolla’s Piano Concerto), Columna Musica (the world premiere of Nin-Culmell Cello Concerto with the Kazan Philharmonic and the Russian cellist Svetlana Tovstukha), and La Ma de Guido (Catalan Piano Music from XIX Century). On August 2008 he also recorded the world premieres of the Manuel Blancafort’s 2nd Piano Concerto, at the piano, and conducting Blancafort’s Symphony and two other orchestral works with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra for the Spanish label Hispania Musica.   Since 1995 he is playing as Duo Cantabile with the Russian cellist Svetlana Tovstukha (pupil of the great Daniil Shafran) and since 2008 with the Ukrainian violinist Nataliya Borysyuk (Duo Leopolis) while playing with world famous artists such as Ivry Gitlis, Andrei Gavrilov, Wojtek Mrozek or Al Di Meola.   As composer Melani Mestre has premiered in the last years several orchestral works, among the most praised: the Overture in Catalan Style (Gdansk Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra 2007), Overture on Ukrainian national themes (Lviv Symphony Orchestra), the Opera “Don Juan, prince of the hell” (Barcelona Chamber Opera Orchestra 2006), “Violintango” (Lviv Symphony Orchestra 2009) and also a Suite for cello solo (premiered in the Ibiza International Music Festival 2004).