Josu de Solaun Soto (Piano)
A recipient of the first prizes at both the XV Josй Iturbi
International Piano Competition and the I European Union Piano Competition held
in Prague, Spanish pianist Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in
distinguished concert series throughout the world, having made notable
appearances in Washington (Kennedy Center), New York (Carnegie Hall,
Metropolitan Opera), Chicago (Chicago Cultural Center), Princeton (Taplin Hall),
London (Southbank Centre), Paris (Salle Cortot), Leipzig (Schumann-Haus), Taipei
(Novel Hall), Mexico City (Sala Silvestre Revueltas), Prague (Nostitz Palace),
Rome (Accademia di Spagna), Menton (Festival International de Musique) and every
major city in Spain. Beginning at a young age, he has performed in Canada,
Germany, Japan, China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands,
Chile and Switzerland as a recitalist, chamber musician and concert soloist,
appearing under such conductors as Francesco Angelico, Yaron Traub, Max
Bragado-Darman, Paul Daniel, Ryan Haskins, Theodore Kuchar, Constantine
Orbelian, Ramуn Tebar, Yuri Krasnapolsky, Ormsby Wilkins, Alexis Soriano,
Francisco Valero-Terribas and Andrйs and Miguel Бngel Gуmez Martнnez among
others, as well as with orchestras including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the
Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, the Monterey Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta
Sinfуnica de Euskadi, the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Radio
Orchestra, the Real Filharmonнa de Galicia, the Valencia Philharmonic Orchestra,
Spain’s Radio and Television Orchestra (RTVE), the American Ballet Theatre
Orchestra, the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine and the Orchestra
Filarmonica of Bari in Italy. His performances have been broadcast on Spanish
national radio, Taiwanese National TV, Ukrainian National TV and Czech National
TV, as well as on New York’s WQXR, Princeton’s WPRB, and Chicago’s WFMT.
Highlights of recent seasons include performances of Britten’s Diversions for
Piano and Orchestra at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, a tour of Spain with the
Basque National Orchestra, performances of the rarely heard Martucci Second
Piano Concerto in Spain, Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in Lviv,
Stravinsky’s Les Noces at the Virginia Arts Festival, the Hummel A Minor
Concerto in Santiago de Compostela, Manuel de Falla’s Noches en los jardines de
Espaсa at the Tilles Center of New York, Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with
the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and a solo recital as part of Chicago’s Dame
Myra Hess Memorial Concerts as well as appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York and Mexico City’s UNAM in addition to his conducting debut in
Spain with the Joven Orquesta de Mбlaga in a Mozart programme.
Future engagements include solo recitals in Tbilisi, Madrid, Mбlaga,
Stamford, Leipzig’s Schumann Haus, New York’s Roerich Museum, Chicago’s Dame
Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, chamber music performances at the Virginia Arts
Festival (featuring a recording of Stravinsky’s Les Noces under JoAnn Falletta
for the NAXOS label) and a CD release with works by Schumann for MELOS RECORDS.
A native of Valencia in Spain, he is a graduate of the Manhattan School of
Music in New York, from which he received his BA, MA and Doctorate of Musical
Arts and where his principal teachers were Nina Svetlanova (former wife of
Evgeny Svetlanov and pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus) and Horacio Gutiйrrez (2nd prize
winner at the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and pupil of Sergei
Tarnowsky).
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