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María Dueñas releases her new album Homage to Heifetz

Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as follows in the footsteps of a violin legend:
Just as Jascha Heifetz once did, the Spanish violinist pairs Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto with Lalo&rsquo;s&nbsp;Symphonie espagnole
Recorded with Gustavo Dudamel and the Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
Homage to Heifetz is released on 28 August 2026 in all formats &ndash; listen to the album&nbsp;<a href="https://dgt.link/HomagetoHeifetz">HERE</a>.
TV and streaming updates: &Eacute;vian concert on STAGE+ (watch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/de/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2CPJ6K">HERE</a>)
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as&nbsp;releases her new album&nbsp;Homage to Heifetz&nbsp;on&nbsp;28 August 2026. It pays tribute to Jascha Heifetz, whose recordings have shaped the Spanish violinist since childhood, and pairs &ndash; as Heifetz once did &ndash; Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto with Lalo&rsquo;s&nbsp;Symphonie espagnole. The programme was recorded at London&rsquo;s Abbey Road Studios with&nbsp;Gustavo Dudamel&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela&nbsp;(the orchestra of Venezuela&rsquo;s internationally renowned El Sistema music education programme, of which Dudamel is Music &amp; Artistic Director).
On the album, Due&ntilde;as also revisits a tradition from the Golden Age of the violin: contrasting major violin concertos with arrangements of short, popular pieces. Alongside Debussy&rsquo;s&nbsp;La fille aux cheveux de lin&nbsp;in an orchestral version, she recorded miniatures by Debussy and Ponce with pianist Itamar Golan. For&nbsp;Estrellita,&nbsp;La chevelure&nbsp;and&nbsp;La plus que lente, Due&ntilde;as played the 1731&nbsp;&ldquo;Heifetz, Piel&rdquo; Stradivarius, once owned by Jascha Heifetz.
The&nbsp;Allegro non troppo&nbsp;from Lalo&rsquo;s&nbsp;Symphonie espagnole&nbsp;is already available to watch&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/8aD_ynXxeGU">HERE.</a>
The following videos are also available:
<ul>
<li>Debussy: La plus que lente (Arr. Roques for Violin &amp; Piano)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiebDvKnkhQ">HERE</a></li>
<li>Ponce: Estrellita (Arr. Heifetz for Violin &amp; Piano)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfaRiKhJTao">HERE</a></li>
<li>EPK&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/73Fipqy6tsg">HERE</a></li>
<li>Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as on the opportunity to record on the 1731 &ldquo;Heifetz, Piel&rdquo; Stradivarius&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efjwk0Yw4dI&amp;list=RDEfjwk0Yw4dI&amp;start_radio=1">HERE</a></li>
</ul>
&ldquo;Having a role model is so important,&rdquo; says Due&ntilde;as, &ldquo;someone who is a constant source of inspiration.&rdquo; For her, that role model is the Lithuanian-born Jascha Heifetz (1901&ndash;87), especially through his interpretations of Lalo and Korngold from the early 1950s. Heifetz was renowned for his virtuosity, his sound and the clarity of his interpretation. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.
Gustavo Dudamel &ndash; himself an excellent violinist &ndash; is also a source of inspiration for Mar&iacute;a: &ldquo;Beyond being a fantastic musician, he&rsquo;s a wonderful human being, someone whose feet are on the ground. This is what gives his music-making such soul.&rdquo;&nbsp;They have appeared together live, among other projects, in the world premiere and further performances of Gabriela Ortiz&rsquo;s&nbsp;Altar de cuerda&nbsp;(&ldquo;Due&ntilde;as was wholly captivating&rdquo; &ndash; The New York Times)
Due&ntilde;as live performance from &Eacute;vian with Denis Kozhukhin, Yo-Yo Ma and Renaud Capu&ccedil;on is now available to watch on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/de/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2CPJ6K">STAGE+</a>.
Her concert dates include Schloss Johannisberg (23 August), Wiesbaden (30 August), Bremen (1 September), Seoul (11 September), Yongin (12 September), Tongyeong (13 September), Taichung (15 September), Taipei (16 and 17 September).

María Dueñas’s Homage to Heifetz 

The Spanish violinist is joined by Gustavo Dudamel and the Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto and Lalo&rsquo;s&nbsp;Symphonie espagnole, inspired by Heifetz&rsquo;s own pairing of these works, as well as in one of his signature Debussy encores
Due&ntilde;as also performs gems by Debussy and Ponce with pianist Itamar Golan
Homage to Heifetz&nbsp;will be released on 28&nbsp;August 2026
&ldquo;Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s interpretation found the perfect balance between technical rigour and expressive freedom &hellip; [She] approached the different episodes with admirable stylistic sensitivity&rdquo;
Ritmo, on Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s performance of Lalo&rsquo;s&nbsp;Symphonie espagnole in her native Granada, June 2025
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s new album for&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon&nbsp;is all about musical connections and inspiration.&nbsp;Homage to Heifetz&nbsp;celebrates the iconic violinist&nbsp;Jascha Heifetz&nbsp;&ndash; whose recorded legacy has long been a key influence on Due&ntilde;as &ndash; and reflects her artistic affinity with conductor&nbsp;Gustavo Dudamel. He and the&nbsp;Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela&nbsp;(the flagship orchestra of Venezuela&rsquo;s internationally renowned El Sistema music education programme), of which he is Music &amp; Artistic Director &ndash; joined Mar&iacute;a at London&rsquo;s legendary&nbsp;Abbey Road Studios&nbsp;to record Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto, Lalo&rsquo;s&nbsp;Symphonie espagnole, and an orchestral arrangement of Debussy&rsquo;s&nbsp;La fille aux cheveux de lin. The album also features three other miniatures recorded in Berlin with pianist&nbsp;Itamar Golan: L&eacute;on Roques&rsquo; transcription of Debussy&rsquo;s&nbsp;La plus que lente, and Heifetz&rsquo;s own arrangements of the same composer&rsquo;s&nbsp;La chevelure&nbsp;and Ponce&rsquo;s&nbsp;Estrellita.
Homage to Heifetz&nbsp;is set for release in all formats on&nbsp;28&nbsp;August 2026. A series of digital singles will be issued in the lead-up to the album release, starting with&nbsp;La fille aux cheveux de lin&nbsp;on&nbsp;10 April&nbsp;and&nbsp;Estrellita&nbsp;on&nbsp;8 May.
&ldquo;Having a role model is so important,&rdquo; says Due&ntilde;as, &ldquo;someone who is a constant source of inspiration.&rdquo; Through his recordings, and notably the interpretations of Lalo and Korngold he set down in the early 1950s, it was the Lithuanian-born Jascha Heifetz (1901-87) who became that role model for Mar&iacute;a. A defining figure of the Golden Age of violinists, he was renowned for his technical virtuosity, molten sound and clarity of interpretation.
Gustavo Dudamel &ndash; an accomplished violinist himself &ndash; is also a source of inspiration for Mar&iacute;a: &ldquo;Beyond being a fantastic musician, he&rsquo;s a wonderful human being, someone whose feet are on the ground. This is what gives his music-making such soul.&rdquo; Their live collaborations include the world premiere and subsequent performances of Gabriela Ortiz&rsquo;s&nbsp;Altar de cuerda&nbsp;(&ldquo;Due&ntilde;as was wholly captivating&rdquo; &ndash;&nbsp;The New York Times).
Both Due&ntilde;as and Dudamel enjoyed their Abbey Road sessions, which gave them time to discover new details in familiar repertoire. They agreed on the importance of weaving the immense technical demands of Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto &mdash; a work premiered by Heifetz &ndash; into the &ldquo;story&rdquo; told by the music, enriched with borrowings from several of the composer&rsquo;s best-known Hollywood scores. Due&ntilde;as also underlines the need to create a dialogue between soloist and orchestra in order to capture the work&rsquo;s true atmosphere.
The same level of mutual trust and understanding between violinist, conductor and orchestra can be heard in the Lalo, which Mar&iacute;a has been playing since she was eleven. Dudamel notes that Mar&iacute;a has the necessary &ldquo;Spanish soul&rdquo; to get to the heart of Lalo&rsquo;s score, while Due&ntilde;as praises the conductor and his orchestra for their shared &ldquo;Hispanic fire&rdquo;.
On the album Mar&iacute;a also revives the Golden-Age tradition of programming arrangements of popular gems alongside more substantial compositions. She was thrilled to be able to record three of Heifetz&rsquo;s signature pieces &ndash;&nbsp;Estrellita,&nbsp;La chevelure&nbsp;and&nbsp;La plus que lente&nbsp;&ndash; on her predecessor&rsquo;s own 1731 Stradivarius (the &ldquo;Heifetz, Piel&rdquo;), loaned to her for the occasion. &ldquo;I came to the studio without having practised much on this violin,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I felt if I practised on it too intensely, I would make it my own and it would lose its authenticity. My intention was to keep the essence of the instrument &ndash; and, in a way, of Heifetz &ndash; intact for the occasion. So I walked into Abbey Road Studios and let the music flow.&rdquo;
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as performs Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto on tour later this season, with dates at LA&rsquo;s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Z&uuml;rich&rsquo;s Tonhalle, La Scala, Milan, London&rsquo;s Barbican Centre, Dallas&rsquo;s Meyerson Symphony Center, Toronto&rsquo;s Roy Thomson Hall and Meridian Arts Center, San Francisco&rsquo;s Davies Symphony Hall between 1 May and 14&nbsp;June. She then plays the Brahms Violin Concerto at the Cologne Philharmonie (5-7 July) and at the Rheingau Musik Festival (11 July). Full touring details&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/maria-duenas/on-tour">here</a>.

Captivating Caprices – María Dueñas  Performs Works by Paganini and his Successors

by Berlioz, Cervell&oacute;, Kreisler, Saint-Sa&euml;ns, Sarasate and Wieniawski 
Out on 14 February 2025, her new album also includes the world premiere recording of Gabriela Ortiz&rsquo;s De Cuerda y Madera
Joining Due&ntilde;as are Rapha&euml;l Feuill&acirc;tre, Itamar Golan, Boris Kuschnir, Alexander Malofeev, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin &amp; Mihhail Gerts
Listen to Kreisler&rsquo;s Caprice viennois <a href="https://dgt.link/duenas-caprices">here</a>
&ldquo;The manner in which Due&ntilde;as acquits herself is nothing short of remarkable &hellip; What a player, and what a way to launch a recording career&rdquo; Gramophone on Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s debut DG album Beethoven and Beyond
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as finds the perfect balance between artistry and technique as she tackles an icon of the repertoire for her second Deutsche Grammophon album. Having earned rave reviews and a 2024 OPUS KLASSIK Young Talent of the Year award for her DG debut, Beethoven and Beyond, the Spanish violinist now turns to Paganini&rsquo;s legendary 24 Caprices. She couples these with a selection of later works inspired by Paganini, presenting music by composers ranging from Berlioz to Gabriela Ortiz. Due&ntilde;as is joined in chamber pieces by Boris Kuschnir, pianists Itamar Golan and Alexander Malofeev and guitarist Rapha&euml;l Feuill&acirc;tre, and in orchestral caprices by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Mihhail Gerts.
The album will be released digitally, as a 2‑CD set, on vinyl (2&nbsp;LPs) and as an exclusive fan box edition on 14&nbsp;February 2025. A first track, Kreisler&rsquo;s Caprice viennois (with Feuill&acirc;tre), will be issued on 11&nbsp;October 2024, while on 13&nbsp;October Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as will be performing live at the OPUS KLASSIK awards ceremony, which will be televised by German broadcaster ZDF.
&ldquo;Paganini&rsquo;s 24 Caprices are a milestone for every violinist,&rdquo; explains Due&ntilde;as, when asked about her choice of repertoire. &ldquo;I grew up listening to and performing them, and when we hear the word &lsquo;caprice&rsquo; we instantly think of Paganini, but there are so many other caprices, from Saint-Sa&euml;ns&rsquo;s Rondo capriccioso to works by contemporary composers like Cervell&oacute;, for example. I really wanted to show how a lot of little moments from the musical world all come together.&rdquo;
As she notes, Paganini wrote the Caprices as technical studies and exercises &ndash; for himself and his fellow professionals. &ldquo;They provide a good way to work on concentrated techniques, both for the left hand and for the bowing arm &ndash; ricochet, staccato, spiccato&hellip; every little detail is there.&rdquo; In addition to virtuosic technique, however, these works reflect the times in which they were written, when bel canto opera was at its height. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve tried to show that vocal quality in the Caprices,&rdquo; comments Due&ntilde;as. &ldquo;These are concert works today, so we need to reveal the music behind the technique. And because it took Paganini more than 15 years to finish the set, I also think it should be approached like a journey through someone&rsquo;s life, with lots happening, developing and growing.&rdquo;
The second part of the album presents a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral caprices. One of the solo works is the late Jordi Cervell&oacute;&rsquo;s Milstein Caprice, written for Due&ntilde;as, whose sound reminded the composer of&nbsp; that of Nathan Milstein. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud to include a work by a fellow countryman, and I hope to be able to bring his soul back with my music,&rdquo; says the violinist. Another composer with whom Due&ntilde;as has worked closely is Gabriela Ortiz, and here she and pianist Alexander Malofeev present the world premiere recording of Ortiz&rsquo;s De Cuerda y Madera. This work was co-commissioned by DG and the :alpenarte Festival, where it will be premiered by Due&ntilde;as on 12 October 2024.
The violinist is also delighted to have recorded Wieniawski&rsquo;s &Eacute;tude-Caprice for two violins with Boris Kuschnir; Sarasate&rsquo;s Caprice basque with pianist Itamar Golan; and Kreisler&rsquo;s Caprice viennois, in an arrangement for violin and guitar, with fellow DG artist Rapha&euml;l Feuill&acirc;tre &ndash; &ldquo;I found many similarities between the colours of the two instruments and I think it will be interesting for the audience to discover the piece in a different light.&rdquo;
For the orchestral works by Berlioz and Saint-Sa&euml;ns, Due&ntilde;as was joined by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and conductor Mihhail Gerts. While she has known Saint-Sa&euml;ns&rsquo;s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso most of her life, having grown up with the Heifetz recording, the composer&rsquo;s Caprice andalous was a new discovery. She was thrilled to find that the orchestra and conductor immediately understood both works&rsquo; Spanish flavour, enabling an intimate and mutually supportive collaboration in this sometimes fiery, sometimes lyrical, but always virtuosic repertoire for violin and orchestra.
&ldquo;A caprice offers a huge range of colours and dynamics and there&rsquo;s also a sense of improvisation,&rdquo; concludes Due&ntilde;as. &ldquo;It means more than technical fireworks. It&rsquo;s about rhapsodic freedom, colour and creativity &ndash; everything that helps to make the violin such a bewitching instrument.&rdquo;
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as plays the Nicol&ograve; Gagliano violin of 17?4 and the Stradivarius &ldquo;Camposelice&rdquo; of 1710, generously loaned by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and Nippon Music Foundation respectively.
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as &ndash; key dates (<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/maria-duenas/on-tour">full touring details here</a>):
12 October &ndash; :alpenarte Festival, Schwarzenberg (feat. world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz&rsquo;s De Cuerda y Madera) 13 October &ndash; OPUS KLASSIK awards ceremony, Konzerthaus Berlin 15 October &ndash; Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin (Szymanowski, Ortiz, Franck) 22&nbsp;October &ndash; Carnegie Hall, New York (Szymanowski, Ortiz, Franck) 3 November &ndash; Royal Festival Hall, London, with the Philharmonia Orchestra &amp; Santtu-Matias Rouvali (Sibelius)
Tour with the Wiener Symphoniker
19/20 November &ndash; Musikverein, Vienna (Bruch) 22 November &ndash; Liederhalle, Stuttgart (Beethoven) &middot; 23 November &ndash; Konzerthaus, Freiburg (Beethoven) 24 November &ndash; Isarphilharmonie, Munich (Bruch) &middot; 26 November &ndash; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (Beethoven) 27 November &ndash; Philharmonie, Cologne (Bruch) &middot; 29 November &ndash; Hannover Congress Centrum (Beethoven)

Revealing the Self:  María Dueñas performs the Beethoven Violin Concerto

&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t rely on virtuosity in Beethoven&rsquo;s concerto; you have to reveal yourself,&rdquo; says Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as. And that can only be done through sound.&rdquo; The supremely talented Spanish violinist will launch her Deutsche Grammophon career in bold fashion by delivering an intriguingly individual interpretation of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, one of the most musically demanding and emotionally profound works in the repertoire. The concerto was recorded live during a recent run of three acclaimed performances at Vienna&rsquo;s Musikverein with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck. It is now the opening work on her DG debut album, Beethoven and Beyond. Featuring her own newly written cadenzas for each movement, the recording reveals Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as as both performer and composer.
The album also includes a series of both popular and lesser-known showpieces for violin and orchestra by Kreisler, Saint-Sa&euml;ns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysa&yuml;e. To complement these works and the concerto, Due&ntilde;as has recorded a companion disc of cadenzas written for the first movement of the Beethoven by those same five composers. Beethoven and Beyond is scheduled for release on 5&nbsp;May 2023.
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as, who has been studying in Vienna with the world-renowned Professor Boris Kuschnir for several years, won first prize with her interpretation of Beethoven&rsquo;s Violin Concerto at the final of the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition in September 2021. By then, DG had already invited her to record the work on the strength of a performance given earlier that year with the Dresdner Philharmoniker and Marek Janowski. &ldquo;Beethoven&rsquo;s Violin Concerto has accompanied me during the most important moments of my life,&rdquo; notes Due&ntilde;as. &ldquo;The move from Germany to Vienna on the recommendation of my mentor Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, my education, and now the recording &ndash; Beethoven has always played a part.&rdquo; She is particularly pleased to have recorded the work with Manfred Honeck, another of her mentors.
Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto for Franz Clement, one of the greatest players of the age. Completed two days before the premiere in December 1806, his score embraced Clement&rsquo;s famed virtuosity and set him and his successors a supreme musical challenge. Its first movement alone lasts more than twenty-five minutes. The stillness of its slow movement is offset by the surging energy of its finale, qualities underlined by the exquisite lyricism and the rhythmic vitality of Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s reading here.
As noted by Spanish music magazine Codalario in a review of one of her January 2023 performances at the Musikverein, Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s strength of personality emerged to the full when, during the first movement, she stepped away from tradition to offer her own cadenza. &ldquo;It was like a breath of fresh air,&rdquo; wrote the critic, &ldquo;revealing her beautiful sound, with double and triple stops, rich trills and, above all, despite its modernity, an enormous respect for the essence of Beethoven.&rdquo;
Fascinated by the process of composition, not content with writing and recording cadenzas for all three movements herself, Due&ntilde;as has recorded five other Beethoven first-movement cadenzas. These demonstrate five very different approaches to the concerto by composers of various periods and cultural backgrounds. They range from that of Beethoven&rsquo;s contemporary Spohr, with its Mozartian touches, to the virtuosity of Kreisler&rsquo;s famous cadenza, via the immense technical demands made by Wieniawski and Ysa&yuml;e and the Romantic spirit of Saint-Sa&euml;ns&rsquo;s version.
Adding further depth to her debut album, the artist has chosen to include another work for violin and orchestra by each of the five. Among her selections are three well-known favourites: Kreisler&rsquo;s Liebesleid, Saint-Sa&euml;ns&rsquo; Havanaise and Wieniawski&rsquo;s L&eacute;gende. Less familiar are the sublime Adagio from Spohr&rsquo;s Symphonie concertante No.&nbsp;1 and Ysa&yuml;e&rsquo;s Berceuse. &ldquo;It is very important to me to present pieces that are not so well known but nevertheless have a lot of musical value,&rdquo; says Due&ntilde;as. She is once again provided with sensitive accompaniment by the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck.&nbsp;
The film of her Musikverein performance, which includes her interpretations of Kreisler&rsquo;s Liebesleid and Ysa&yuml;e&rsquo;s Berceuse as well as the Beethoven, will be premiered exclusively on DG&rsquo;s STAGE+ at 8pm CEST on 20 May. Due&ntilde;as will also be reunited with Manfred Honeck, who is Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, when she plays Lalo&rsquo;s Symphonie espagnole with him and the orchestra at Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh later this year (16‑18 June).
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as plays the Nicol&ograve; Gagliano violin of 17?4, kindly loaned by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, and the Stradivarius &ldquo;Camposelice&rdquo; of 1710, on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Deutsche Grammophon Signs Menuhin Competition-Winner María Dueñas

Berlin, 30 September 2022. From Zhuhai to Ufa, New York to Hesse, Spanish violinist Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as wins prizes &ndash; not to mention audience ovations and rave reviews &ndash; wherever she goes. Hailed for playing with &ldquo;freedom and joyous individuality&rdquo; (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), this sensational artist is the latest winner of the Menuhin Competition, the world&rsquo;s most prestigious prize for young violinists. Born in Granada, based in Vienna, with concert dates stretching ahead of her at venues worldwide, Due&ntilde;as is one of the most thoughtful and communicative musicians on the current classical scene. Today, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
Due&ntilde;as is set to launch her DG recording career with the Beethoven Violin Concerto, a bold choice of repertoire that reflects the gravity and substance of her music-making. She is recording her debut album, scheduled for release in May 2023, with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck. The violinist, who enjoys composition, has written her own cadenzas for the concerto.
&ldquo;For me, Deutsche Grammophon quite simply means great music &ndash; I grew up listening to my mother&rsquo;s vinyl DG recordings of Milstein and Oistrakh,&rdquo; says Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as. &ldquo;So of course I&rsquo;m thrilled to join the label myself and especially to have the opportunity to record one of the greatest violin concertos ever written. Exploring the Beethoven and developing my interpretation of this work with the wonderful Wiener Symphoniker and Maestro Honeck is a dream come true.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Mar&iacute;a is an audacious young musician who is making a strong start to her recording journey with Beethoven as her first project,&rdquo; observes Val&eacute;rie Gross, Deutsche Grammophon&rsquo;s Senior A&amp;R Director. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a special magic in her playing &ndash; an energy and lightness combined with extraordinary depth and sensibility. We&rsquo;re very much looking forward to working with her.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re delighted about the new collaboration with&nbsp;Mar&iacute;a&rdquo;,&nbsp;adds&nbsp;Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche&nbsp;Grammophon.&nbsp;&ldquo;She&rsquo;s such an expressive violinist, whose outstanding technical abilities&nbsp;match her sensitivity for sound quality and zest&nbsp;for fresh&nbsp;musical experiences.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s fascinating to observe that her creativity&nbsp;extends to compositions of her own, high-profile world premieres and audiovisual projects.&nbsp;Such comprehensive talent comes along&nbsp;maybe&nbsp;once in a generation.&rdquo;
Born in 2002, Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as enrolled at the &Aacute;ngel Barrios Conservatory in her native Granada when she was seven. So rapid was her progress that only four years later she was awarded a scholarship to study abroad by Juventudes Musicales Madrid. Accepted as a student at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden, she was soon spotted by violinist Wolfgang Hentrich and conductor Marek Janowski, at whose invitation she would later make her debut as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony. In 2016, she and her family moved again, this time to Austria to enable her to study with the renowned violin teacher Boris Kuschnir, on the recommendation of her mentor Vladimir Spivakov, at the private Music and Arts University of Vienna and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz.
Competition success soon followed, with her most notable awards including victories at the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition, 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition in Ufa, 2021 Getting to Carnegie Competition, 2021 Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition and 2021 Rheingau Music Festival (career advancement prize), as well as both first prize and the audience prize at the 2021 Menuhin Competition, which also led to her receiving the loan of a Stradivari violin from the collection of Jonathan Moulds. As a result, she is in high demand as soloist with many of the world&rsquo;s leading orchestras and in recent years has been invited to perform at such prestigious venues as Hamburg&rsquo;s Elbphilharmonie, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Vienna Musikverein, Madrid&rsquo;s Auditorio Nacional, Carnegie Hall in New York and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Due&ntilde;as is also passionate about chamber music and has given recitals with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Itamar Golan, among others. She has also premiered several works written for and dedicated to her by the late Catalan composer Jordi Cervell&oacute;, including the Milstein Caprice.
Her own solo piano piece Farewell, written for the 2016 &ldquo;Von fremden L&auml;ndern und Menschen&rdquo; Competition for Young Composers was recently recorded by Evgeny Sinaiski and turned into a music video during lockdown, a project that reveals Due&ntilde;as&rsquo;s multifaceted creativity. &ldquo;I just love when different arts merge into one and become more accessible to a larger audience,&rdquo; she comments. &ldquo;I think this is the responsibility of every artist.&rdquo;
In May 2022, Due&ntilde;as gave the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz&rsquo;s violin concerto Altar de cuerda, dedicated to her, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall (&ldquo;Poised and unshowy, she owns this exceedingly difficult concerto&rdquo; &ndash;&nbsp;Los Angeles Times). She will join forces with the orchestra and its Music &amp; Artistic Director for further performances of the concerto in LA (6-9 October), at Boston&rsquo;s Symphony Hall (23&nbsp;October) and at Carnegie Hall (25&nbsp;October). Other forthcoming highlights include appearances with the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo J&auml;rvi at the Philharmonie de Paris (29 &amp; 30&nbsp;September), a tour with Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (8-18 February 2023), and a series of high-profile concerts and broadcasts in the UK (including a recital next summer at Wigmore Hall), as one of the current intake of BBC Radio&nbsp;3 New Generation Artists.
Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as plays the Nicol&ograve; Gagliano violin of 17?4, kindly loaned by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, and the Guarneri del Ges&ugrave; &ldquo;Muntz&rdquo; of 1736, on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, as well as the above-mentioned Stradivari.

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Title

Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as &middot; Itamar Golan Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela Gustavo Dudamel

HOMAGE TO HEIFETZ María Dueñas, Gustavo Dudamel

Homage to Heifetz

Works by Lalo &middot;&nbsp;Korngold &middot;&nbsp;Debussy Ponce

On her album Homage to Heifetz, Spanish violinist Mar&iacute;a Due&ntilde;as joins forces with the Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and conductor Gustavo Dudamel to celebrate the iconic violinist Jascha Heifetz &ndash; whose recorded legacy has long been a key influence on Due&ntilde;as.
Both Korngold&rsquo;s Violin Concerto and Lalo&rsquo;s Symphonie espagnole, as well as an orchestral arrangement of Debussy&rsquo;s La fille aux cheveux de lin, were recorded with the orchestra and its Music and Artistic Director at London&rsquo;s legendary Abbey Road Studios. The album also features three other miniatures recorded in Berlin with pianist Itamar Golan: L&eacute;on Roques&rsquo;s transcription of Debussy&rsquo;s La plus que lente, and Heifetz&rsquo;s own arrangements of the same composer&rsquo;s La chevelure and Ponce&rsquo;s Estrellita.&nbsp;
Through his recordings, and notably the interpretations of Lalo and Korngold he set down in the early 1950s, it was the Lithuanian-born Jascha Heifetz (1901&ndash;87) who became a role model for Due&ntilde;as. A defining figure of the Golden Age of violinists, he was renowned for his technical virtuosity, molten sound and clarity of interpretation. &ldquo;Having a role model is so important,&rdquo; says the violinist, &ldquo;someone who is a constant source of inspiration.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The album is available digitally, on CD and vinyl. Order the CD and vinyl editions in the <a href="https://store.deutschegrammophon.com/de-de/collections/maria-duenas">DG Store</a>.

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