María Dueñas, Wiener Symphoniker & Manfred Honeck
Biography María Dueñas, Wiener Symphoniker & Manfred Honeck
María Dueñas
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.
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.”
On exclusive contract with the legendary Deutsche Grammophon since September 2022, Dueñas will release her debut album recorded live with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck at the Golden Hall in Musikverein, featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and the violinist´s own cadenzas.
Last season, she gave her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic under Manfred Honeck, the San Francisco Symphony and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra under Marek Janowski, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Gustavo Gimeno, the Staatskapelle Berlin under Alain Altinoglu, the Orchestre de Paris and the Tonhalle Zürich with Paavo Järvi, the Lithuanian National Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, the Luzerner Symphony Orchestra and Michael Sanderling, The Galician Symphony Orchestra and Dima Slobodeniouk, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Alondra de la Parra, the BBC Scottish Symphony and Kevin Edusei or the Danish Symphony Orchestra, 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 the pianist Evgeny Sinaiski, it was transformed into a music video filmed during the pandemic.
A dedicated chamber musician, María has performed with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Itamar Golan, 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 after winning a scholarship to study abroad awarded by Juventudes Musicales Madrid and moved to Dresden to study at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music.
Forthcoming highlights in the 2022-2023 season include a tour with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno, with concerts at the Ottawa National Arts Centre, the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Chicago and Carnegie Hall, her debut with Herbert Blomstedt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Richmond Symphony with Valentina Peleggi, invitations from the Detroit Symphony under Jader Bignamini, friendly reencounters with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck and her return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie under Alan Gilbert. Special collaborations will bring her to the Vienna Concert Hall with Kian Soltani and Patrick Hahn, to a Japanese concert tour with Pablo Ferrández, Suyoen Kim and Akira Eguchi, to the mythic Wigmore Hall in London with Julien Quentin and to La Grange au Lac Festival with Renaud Capuçon.
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.
