María Dueñas (Maria Dueñas Fernandez) is a Spanish violinist and composer, born
(in Granada) on December 4, 2002. She is very likely the best Spanish violinist
since Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908.) She is also known as a former child prodigy.
She has been winning violin competitions since she was 14 years old, including
the Zhuhai (China), the Vladimir Spivakov (Russia), the G.P Telemann (Poland),
the Yankelevitch (Russia), the Leonid Kogan (Belgium), and the Luigi Zanuccoli
(Italy) violin competitions. * (see comments below) Since she is also a composer, she writes her own
cadenzas for each concerto she plays. As a member of the Hamamelis Quartet, she
also won first prize at the Fidelio Chamber Music Competition in Vienna in 2017.
She began her violin studies at age 5 in Spain. I do not know who her first
teacher was. At age 7, she entered the Granada Conservatory. She made her local
debut with the Granada Symphony at age 11, playing the first concerto of Mozart.
Andrea Marcon was on the podium. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to
Vienna so that she could study with Boris Kuschnir (well-known violin pedagogue)
at the University for Music and Art in Graz and at the Music and Arts University
in Vienna, Austria. (Graz is about a two-hour drive from Vienna, driving south.)
In this effort, she was assisted by Russian violinist, Vladimir Spivakov.
(Spivakov’s Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra has a very strong connection to
Spain.) In September of 2019, she was named Artist of the Month by Musical
America being only 16 years old. Dueñas has already concertized in many
countries around the world (including the U.S.) and has played in some of the
most prestigious concert halls but, since she is still a student at the
University, understandably spends most of her time in Europe. Here is one of her
many YouTube video performances. You can judge her virtuosity and style for
yourself. Dueñas speaks four languages fluently – German, English, French, and
Spanish. She is also currently studying the Russian language. Two of her violins
have been a Nicolo Gagliano (1764), on loan from the German Musical Life
Foundation and the Muntz Guarneri (1736) on loan from the Nippon Music
Foundation. I do not know if she is still using either one of those fine
violins. The photo is courtesy of David Ausserhoffer.
