The violinist from Granada Maria Duenas20 years old, has been distinguished this Thursday with the 2023 Princess of Girona Arts and Letters Award. The name of the winner has been announced during the main act of the Talent Tour that is held in Córdoba until April 19 and? has been chaired by Queen Letizia.
The central act of this event, which is organized by the Princess of Girona Foundation with Trivu as a strategic ally and which has the Córdoba City Council and its Youth Delegation, through Planneo, as co-organisers, becoming a city project where the main local and regional entities, has been held in the Gran Teatro of the capital, full of young students.
The queen has been accompanied by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta; the Mayor of Córdoba, José María Bellido, and the Minister of Educational Development and Vocational Training of the Junta de Andalucía, Patricia del Pozo, as well as representatives of the Princess of Girona Foundation and Trivu, among other authorities and institutional representatives.
The Princess of Girona Foundation has chosen the Talent Tour as the setting to announce the name of the Award winner in the Arts and Letters category. A jury of experts, meeting this Thursday at the Gran Teatro de Córdoba, has decided to recognize the career of María Dueñas for “a very high degree of interpretation and execution of the violin, which allows her a great emotional connection with the public, and has received a unusual international recognition at his age”.
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The jury also highlighted that “due to his great talent, his discipline and his ability to work, he is an exceptional inspiring role model for young people”.
Biography of Maria Duenas
Born in Granada in 2002, María Dueñas fell in love with classical music thanks to the recordings her parents listened to at home and the concerts she attended in her hometown. She started playing the violin at the age of six and enrolled in the Granada Conservatory a year later.
In 2014 she won the Juventudes Musicales de Madrid scholarship to study abroad, being the youngest student in the history of that call, and moved to Dresden to continue her training at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber. An important decision made by her parents, who gave up everything to support her daughter’s talent and determination.
In 2016, she and her family moved again, this time to Austria, so that she could study with Borís Kuschnir at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität in the city of Vienna and at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz.
María Dueñas interacts with the younger public, encouraging the involvement of this segment in classical music. She has participated in social initiatives with the City of Granada Orchestra, such as the initiative called ‘El corazón de la OCG’, a social project to bring music to disadvantaged groups, materializing in concerts in Aldeas Infantiles de Granada shelters for children. .
First prize and public prize in the Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2021, María Dueñas signed an exclusive contract with the legendary Deutsche Grammophon record company in September 2022 and will inaugurate her discography with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and cadenzas of her own composition, recorded in the Golden Room of the Musikverein with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Manfred Honeck conducting.
A versatile artist, Dueñas became fond of composing after writing cadenzas for Mozart’s violin concertos. Ella’s piano work by ella Farewell, awarded at the ‘Von fremden Ländern und Menschen’ Competition for Young Composers in 2014, was recorded by Evgeny Sinaiski and later transformed into a music video.
Passionate about chamber music and the repertoire of contemporary musicians, she has premiered the violin concerto dedicated to her by G. Ortiz with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.