María Dueñas

Source: mariaduenasviolin.com

Spanish violinist María Dueñas beguiles audiences with the breathtaking array of colours she draws from her instrument. Her technical prowess, artistic maturity and bold interpretations have inspired rave reviews, captivated competition juries, and secured invitations to appear with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. On exclusive contract with the legendary Deutsche Grammophon since September 2022, Dueñas released her debut album in May 2023 featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for which she wrote her own cadenzas. Recorded live with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein Wien, the album was awarded an Opus-Klassik Prize.

María Dueñas has been studying with world-renowned Professor Boris Kuschnir at the Music and Arts University of Vienna for several years.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has hailed the “freedom and joyous individuality” of her playing, while The Strad described her rising-star status as “seemingly unstoppable” after she won a whole series of international violin competitions (the 2021 Grand Prix at the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, the Getting to Carnegie Hall Competition and the 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition, among others). Not least among this succession of triumphs was her livestreamed run to victory at the 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition, at which she won not only the first prize and audience prize, but also a global online following and the loan of a golden-period Stradivari from Jonathan Moulds’ private collection. The Rheingau Music Festival awarded her the career advancement prize, and the BBC Radio 3 named her “New Generation Artist 2021-23.”

In previous seasons she gave her debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Herbert Blomstedt, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic under Manfred Honeck, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the San Francisco Symphony and the Dresdner Philharmonie with Marek Janowski and Kent Nagano, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Stanislav Kochanovsky, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Gustavo Gimeno, the Staatskapelle Berlin with Alain Altinoglu, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with Paavo Järvi, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck, the Lithuanian National Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under Michael Sanderling, the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra under Jukka Pekka Saraste, the Bamberger Symphoniker under Christoph Eschenbach, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo with Cristian Măcelaru, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert or the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, among others.

As dedicatee of Gabriela Ortiz´ violin Concerto “Altar de Cuerda” (2022), Dueñas caused international sensation upon its premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall with Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, which would mark a fruitful artistic collaboration followed by electrifying musical moments at the 100th Hollywood Bowl Anniversary. Praised by The New York Times as “wholy captivating,” the concerto caused enthusiastic admiration after sold out premieres at Carnegie Hall, Boston and the Cervantino Festival in Mexico.

A multi-faceted musician, Dueñas became fond of composing after she started writing cadenzas for Mozart´s violin concertos. A solo piano piece, Farewell, was awarded a prize in the 2016 “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” Competition for Young Composers. Recorded by pianist Evgeny Sinaiski, it was transformed into a music video filmed during the pandemic. Most recently she composed the piece for solo violin “Hommage 1770”, inspired by her debut album and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. A dedicated chamber musician, María has performed with Matthias Goerne, Itamar Golan and Renaud Capuçon, among other artists. She has also premiered several works such as Julian Gargiulo´s Sonata and solo caprices dedicated to her by the late Catalan composer Jordi Cervelló.

Born in Granada in 2002, María Dueñas moved to Dresden in 2014 to study at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music, after winning a scholarship to study abroad awarded by Juventudes Musicales Madrid. Shortly afterwards she was discovered by the violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov and moved to Vienna on his recommendation.

Forthcoming highlights in the 2024/2025 season include her return to the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and to the Staatskapelle Berlin with Paavo Järvi, her debut with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Andrés Orozco-Estrada and with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Marin Alsop, a tour with pianist Alexander Malofeev with concerts in Carnegie Hall and Pierre Boulez Saal, friendly reencounters with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck as well as engagements with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under Marek Janowski and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra Turin with Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

As a stipendiary of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, María Dueñas plays the Nicolò Gagliano violin of 17?4 and the Stradivarius “Camposelice” (1710), on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.