The Spanish violinist María Dueñas has established herself as a shining talent on the classical music scene, and captivates audiences with her extraordinary variety of timbres and her bold expressiveness. In 2021 she won the Menuhin Violin Competition and was selected as a New Generation Artist by BBC Radio 3. María Dueñas has received invitations to perform with major orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. María Dueñas has worked with conductors including Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Cristian Măcelaru, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
She maintains close ties with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She caused a stir in 2022 with the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar de cuerda. The recording of the work received three Grammy Awards in 2025.
Highlights of 2024/25 included a tour of Japan with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi, concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Staatskapelle Berlin under Christian Thielemann and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons at the Tanglewood Festival, and her return to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck. Her performances also include(d) recitals with Alexander Malofeev at Carnegie Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Edinburgh Festival and the Salzburg Festival.
A versatile artist, she also impresses with chamber music partners such as Matthias Goerne, Itamar Golan and Renaud Capuçon. In addition, she has celebrated her first successes as a composer. Her prize-winning piano piece Farewell has already been recorded.
As an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon, she released her debut album Beethoven and Beyond in 2023, and it received an OPUS Klassik in 2024. Her second album, featuring Paganini’s 24 Caprices, followed in February 2025.
Highlights of María Dueñas’s 2025/26 season will include her appearance at the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm together with Semyon Bychkov, and her debuts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of her long-term artistic partner Manfred Honeck and with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karina Canellakis, along with concerts in honour of the 90th birthday of Zubin Mehta with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
María Dueñas plays a violin made by Nicolò Gagliano (17?4), on loan from the German Stiftung Musikleben, as well as the Stradivarius ‘Camposelice‘ from 1710, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
