In 2001, Mauricio Vallina recorded his first CD released with EMI CLASSICS INTERNATIONAL. (*)
This EMI Abbey Road recording received a “CHOC“ PRICE in the magazine "Le Monde de la Musique" (**) and brought him a great international acclaim.
Mauricio Vallina (1970) is an international concert pianist living in Europe. He has been a top prize-winner of many national and international piano competitions where prominent musicians have recognized his marked individuality. His prizes include Valencia (1994) and Gernika (1996) International Piano Competitions and he has also been awarded special prizes for the best performance of Cuban and Spanish Music. After graduating in Havana, his native city, with a Gold Diploma in1988, he achieved a solid formation at the Moscow “Tchaikovsky“ Conservatory, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts in 1996 (nowadays he is listed as an Eminent student of this renowned institution.) He continued his formation at the Madrid Royal Conservatory and later on at the Lake Como International Piano Academy. The essential guidance and influence of Roberto Urbay, Henrietta Mirvis, Irina Plotnikova, Joaquin Soriano, Alicia de Larrocha, Dimitri Bashkirov, Fou Tsong, Zenaida Manfugás and Martha Argerich have brought extraordinary dimension to his artistry.
Vallina's debut in Zurich Tonhalle in 1998 was a significant step in his international career, performing since then at many of the great international festivals, including La Roque dʼAnthèron, Schlesswig-Holstein music festival, Radio France-Montpellier festival, Beppu, Argerichʻs meeting point, Sintra festival, Lugano festival... In solo recitals, chamber music performances and concerts with orchestra, his playing has been highly praised in important venues across Europe, America, Asia and Australia including Salle Pleyel and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Musiekverein in Viena, Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Conservatory Halls of Brussels and Liège, De Doelen in Rotterdam, Kongresshalle of Karlsruhe and Lübeck, Tonhalle of Zürich and Saint-Gallen, Palazzo di Congressi in Lugano, Auditorios of Zaragoza, Madrid and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Small Hall of Moscow Conservatory and different Philarmonic Halls of Russia, Teatro Colón and CCK of Buenos Aires, Teatro Colón of Bogotá, Teatro Universitario de Monterrey, Teatro del Estado de Veracruz, Taipei and Beppu Concert Halls, the Indian Music Societies in Delhi, Bombay and Pune... In many of these halls the concerts have been broadcasted on both radio and television.
He has performed with leading orchestras under the batons of Vello Pähn, Pavel Iadij, Günter Einhaus, Manuel Galduf, Howard Griffiths, Roberto Tibiriçá, Alexander Rabinovitch, Guillermo Scarabino, Guillermo Becerra, Luis Gorelik, Pascal Rophé, Christoph Eschenbach, Augustin Dumay, Alexander Vedernikov amongst others. His chamber music partners include Polina Leschenko, Gabriela Montero, Nelson Goerner, Karin Lechner, Alexander Mogilevsky, Evgeny Brahman, Don-Hyek Lim, Pia Sebastiani, Graciela Reka, Geza Hosszu-Legocky, Mark Drobinsky, Torleif Thedéen, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Chucho Valdés... He has been featured in several documentary films such as Evening Talks by Georges Gachot and Nelson Freire- a Brazilian production.
Since 2001 Vallina has performed in piano duo with Martha Argerich in numerous countries, many memorable audio and video recordings have remained from this long and fruitful collaboration. Some of the performances are released on the EMI Classics , as Live from Lugano Festival series. In 2001 Vallina also recorded his first CD released with EMI Classics International. This EMI Abbey Road recording received a “CHOC“ in the magazine Le Monde de la Musique and brought him great international acclaim.
Mauricio Vallina not only excels in performing well known classics of the piano repertoire, the rendering of undiscovered pieces is always part of his attractive programming. His musical tastes span wide, he performs a broad repertoire from Bach to contemporary works and even premiers new compositions, some of which have been dedicated to him. One of them: The first concerto for Piano and Orchestra by the Colombian composer Arturo Cuellar, was premiered at the Colón Theater of Buenos Aires in 2001 and the Sonata en Mi bemol of the same composer, at the Zürich Tonhalle in 2002. In 2012 he also collaborated with Austrian composer Roland Baumgartner.
Certain notable performances that represent his unique repertoire choices include his interpretation of the Lutoslawski-Paganini Variations with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana at the opening of the 2007 edition of the Lugano Festival, his rendition of the Mac Dowell second piano concerto with the Liege Philharmonic Orchestra at the opening concert of their own Festival Amériques in 2008. Both performances caused sensation and received significant critical acclaim. He was selected for The Ruhr Piano Festival Stipend of the year 2008 and as part of this promotional project released a live solo recital cd including one of his own transcriptions L'Enigma for FonoForum magazine.
Lately, apart from his career as an international performer, Vallina also regularly gives masterclasses and personal advice to many young musicians who have claimed to be truly inspired by his very particular insights. His masterclasses at the Vienna Conservatory, at the Barcelona Liceo, Havanaʼs Mozarteum and Monterrey International Festival to name a few, have been considered a revelation not only by the students but also by attending colleagues in the audience. Recently he is also invited as a jury member to some international piano competitions and at the same time he is involved in the creation of certain unconventional ideas and crossover-projects.
In both 2013 and 2014 Vallina was the only classical artist invited to perform at the Voll-Damm International Jazz Festival in Barcelona, his latest program creation Classic Cuba was officially presented by Chucho Valdés in 2014. In 2015 he took part in a Beethoven Piano Concertos Marathon within the first Saygun Festival in Izmir (Turkey) and opened the 2015 edition of the Lugano Festival with the Dohnanyi Variations for Piano and Orchestra, the recording of which was selected to be included in the yearly CD release of the festival. He regularly participates at the Blüthner Classics series in Colditz and Leipzig.
After more than twenty years of absence, Vallina finally made his Début in Havana with two grand recital programs that caused furor in his native city: a monograph program entitled Le concert c’est moi, entirely dedicated to F. Liszt and of course his latest program creation: Classic Cuba. Upon these performances the cultural section of the National Cuban TV announced his return referring to him as: the Cuban Classical Concert Pianist with the major international career of our times. Furthermore, Vallina also joined an exclusive group of pianists that performed together the Bach Concertos Live from the Salle Pleyel of Paris of which a DVD was released in 2015 for Presto. He began 2016 with two performances and masterclasses at the International Music Festival of Cartagena in Colombia (El Tiempo) and in 2017 his presence at several Turkish Festivals caused a remarkable media hype in the region, as a performer and professor. In 2018 he was in charge of the Closure of the Sevilla Juventudes Musicales Festival and took part in the Final Gala of the first Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg, followed by a very successful Argentinean tour with orchestral works of Bach and Liszt. In 2019 he offers masterclasses in Spain, takes part as jury member in the Madrid Shigeru Kawai Competition and performs at the Hamburg Festival with Misha Maisky and other artists. Those performances at the Hamburg Festival are released and distributed by the Avanti Classic label. In 2019 Martha Argerich appointed him honorary professor of her Foundation Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and since 2020 he holds a full professorship at the piano faculty of the Superior School of Music FORUM MUSiKAE.
Vallina is considered one of the most interesting pianists of his generation. A profound view of musical drama, an unmistakable lightness, enormous expressive power and a dazzling spectrum of colors are pointed out as hallmarks of his unique musical personality.
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