Chronology
1876 29 December, Pau Carlos Salvador Casals Defilló is born in El Vendrell, Catalonia, Spain, of a Puerto Rican mother, Pilar Defilló and a Catalonian father, Carles Casals.
1884 Offers his first violin recital in El Vendrell. This recital caused great discomforts on the promising musician. Due to his habit of performing with his eyes closed. his friends jokingly called him "the blind musician". This infuriated him to the extent that he swore to abandon playing the violin and take up another instrument.
1887 Discovers the cello.
1888 Moves to Barcelona to continue his music studies.
1891 His first cello recital is held in Barcelona.
1893 Graduates with honors and begins to play at the Café Tost in the Gracia Quarter in Barcelona. Auditions for Count Morphy, Secretary to King Alfonso XII and advisor to Queen Regent María Cristina. The Queen Regent and the Count decide to sponsor Casals’ musical education at the Madrid Conservatory.
1895 Travels to Paris. Begins performing as second cellist with the orchestra of the Follies Marigny Theatre.
1896 Returns to Barcelona, where he is appointed professor at the Escola Municipal de Música and principal cellist with the orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
1897 Travels to Portugal invited by King Carlos and Queen Amelia to perform a recital at the Royal Palace in Lisbon.
1899 Returns to Paris and appears as soloist with the Maestro Lamoureux Orchestra.
Receives an invitation from Queen Victoria to offer a concert at the Crystal Palace in London.
Tours throughout his native Spain with pianist Harold Bauer.
1901 Tours the United States of America.
1903 Tours South America.
1904 Is invited by President Theodore Roosevelt to give a recital at the White House in Washington, D.C.
1905 Travels to Russia in a concert tour the year of the first Russian revolution.
1910 Offers the first of a series of yearly concerts in Vienna.
1913 Returns to Barcelona and organizes the Pau Casals Orchestra, which offers its first concert in 1913.
1914 Founded the École Normale de la Musique in Paris and a trio with violinist Jacques Thibaud and pianist Alfred Cortot.
Beweds the reknowned American singer Susan Metcalf, from whom he separates in 1928.
1926 The Asociació Obrera de Concerts is founded. For the price of six pesetas workers could attend classical music concerts.
1936 The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War surprises Casals as he rehearses his orchestra for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for a concert requested by the Ministry of Culture. Casals cancelled all scheduled performances of the work and only one performance of the Ninth Symphony was given as his farewell gesture.
1939 Travels to France, residing most of the time in Paris, until finally taking up permanent residence in Prades.
Declines invitations to perform in countries where Francisco Franco’s Spanish regime is officially recognized.
1950 Breaks his retirement in memory of the bicentennial of the death of his admired Bach by invitation from Alexander Schneider to organize and participate in a festival in Bach's honor at Prades. Said festival is still active to this day.
1955 Visits Puerto Rico for the first time. The following year he settles there, enraptured by the Island where his mother and cello student Marta Montañez —who will become his wife— were born.
1956 Organizes the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
1957 The first Casals Festival is held in Puerto Rico.
Marriage to Marta Montañez.
1958 Organizes the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra
1959 Organizes and presides over the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.
1960 His oratorio El Pessebre (The Manger) is performed for the first time in Acapulco, Mexico. This signals the beginning of Casals worldwide mission for world peace
1961 Is invited by President John F. Kennedy, to visit and perform at the White House.
1963 In commemoration of the 18th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Organization and the 15th anniversary of the Universal Human Rights Declaration, performs his oratorio El Pessebre at the U.N headquarters as a mission for world peace.
1971 Two weeks before his 95th birthday premieres the Anthem of the United Nations in New York City.
1972 Conducts 80 cellists performing at New York’s Lincoln Center.
1973 Maestro Casals dies in Puerto Rico .
1979 After the death of dictator Francisco Franco, his mortal remains were finally laid to rest in his beloved Catalonia.

Pau Carles Salvador Casals Defilló, a man of unsurpassed musical talent, was born at El Vendrell, a small town on the Mediterranean Sea, capital of Baix Penedes in Catalonia, Spain, on the 29th of December 1876. He was the son of Carles, parish organist and choirmaster, who made a living out offering piano and singing lessons. His mother, Pilar Defilló, a woman of strength and strong character, had been born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, at the time a territory Spain.
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