María Dueñas

»With her beautiful sound – lush, light, and radiant – and her flawless technique, Dueñas is already among the best. She brought out a multitude of nuances, effortlessly transitioning from bravura to a whisper.« Bachtrack, review of a performance of Franck's Violin Sonata at her recital debut at Carnegie Hall in October 2024 Spanish violinist María Dueñas captivates her audience with the breathtaking variety of colors she coaxes from her instrument. Her technical prowess, her characterful interpretations, and her artistic maturity impress critics and competition juries alike. She performs with renowned orchestras and conductors and is also a passionate chamber musician, having appeared with baritone Matthias Goerne, pianist Itamar Golan, violinist Renaud Capuçon, and guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre, among others. María Dueñas is a long-time student of the renowned pedagogue Boris Kuschnir at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. Exclusive interviews with María Dueñas Watch on STAGE+ Her playing was described as »unreserved and delightfully individual« by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and The Strad deemed her success »beyond question« after she won a series of international violin competitions. This includes, above all, her live-streamed triumph at the Menuhin Competition 2021, where she won not only the first prize but also the audience award and, simultaneously, a worldwide fan base. In September 2022, María Dueñas signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She opened her DG discography with Beethoven's Violin Concerto, for which she wrote her own cadenzas. The album, titled Beethoven and Beyond, also features five bravura pieces for violin and orchestra by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski, and Ysaÿe, and on an accompanying CD, the artist presents cadenzas written by the same composers for the first movement of the Beethoven concerto. Recorded live with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck at the Vienna Musikverein, the album was released in May 2023. It received euphoric reviews (»What a musician, and what a start to a recording career,« marveled Gramophone) and earned Dueñas an OPUS KLASSIK as Young Artist of the Year. During the award ceremony, she performed Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1 with her DG colleague Bruce Liu and also received the audience award from Welt am Sonntag. Her second album for Deutsche Grammophon was released in February 2025, dedicated to Paganini's legendary 24 Caprices. The work is complemented by pieces from composers inspired by the devilish violinist – from Hector Berlioz to Gabriela Ortiz. In chamber music, she is accompanied by violinist Boris Kuschnir, pianists Itamar Golan and Alexander Malofeev, and guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre. In the orchestral pieces, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin performs under the direction of Mihhail Gerts. Gramophone judged: »I can hardly think of another modern recording that reveals such colorful and lyrical imagination as that of 22-year-old Maria Dueñas.« Recent highlights in María Dueñas’ concert calendar include the world premiere of De Cuerda y Madera by Gabriela Ortiz at the :alpenarte Festival in Schwarzenberg last October; her recital debut at New York's Carnegie Hall; a tour of Austria and Germany in November with the Wiener Symphoniker (Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven's Violin Concerto); and the world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival of Sofia Bohdanowicz's Mesures for a Funeral, in which Maria embodies the reincarnation of violinist Kathleen Parlow and brings to life Johan Halvorsen's long-lost Violin Concerto with the Orchestre Métropolitain under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. This summer, she will perform Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons in Tanglewood (July 25); recitals with Alexander Malofeev featuring works by Szymanowski, Debussy, and Franck at the Edinburgh Festival (August 4) and Salzburg Festival (August 5); Bruch's First Violin Concerto with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (August 23), in Stockholm's Berwaldhallen (August 28), and at the Grafenegg Festival (August 30). Born in Granada in 2002, María Dueñas fell in love with classical music through the recordings her parents constantly played at home and through visits to concerts in her hometown. She began learning the violin at age six, and a year later, she attended the conservatory in Granada. When she won an international scholarship from Juventudes Musicales de Madrid in 2014, she moved to Dresden to study at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber. There, she was soon discovered by violinist Wolfgang Hentrich and conductor Marek Janowski, at whose invitation she would later make her debut as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, she and her family moved to Austria so that she could study at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, on the recommendation of her mentor Vladimir Spivakov. The versatile artist discovered her joy in composing when she began writing cadenzas for Mozart's violin concertos. Her piece Farewell for solo piano received an award at the 2016 youth composition competition »Von fremden Ländern und Menschen.« Recorded by Evgeny Sinaisky, it was turned into a music video filmed during the pandemic. Her series of competition victories began with the Zhuhai International Mozart Competition in 2017 and the Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition in 2018. In 2021, she was not only successful at the Menuhin Competition but also won first prize at the »Getting to Carnegie« competition, the Grand Prix of the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, and the Förderpreis of the Rheingau Musik Festival. She was selected by BBC Radio 3 as one of the New Generation Artists 2021–23. María Dueñas plays the Nicolò Gagliano violin from 17?4, on loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, and the Stradivari »Camposelice« from 1710, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. 6/2025