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. 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.