María Dueñas Fernández
María Dueñas, 2017
Background information
Born	(2002-12-04) 4 December 2002 (age 22) Granada, Spain
Occupation	Classical violinist
Years active	2017-present
Labels	Deutsche Grammophon
Website	www.mariaduenasviolin.com/en

María Dueñas Fernández (born 4 December 2002), is a Spanish violinist and composer. In 2021 she won the first prize in the Yehudi Menuhin Competition, in the senior category. She is considered the Spanish violinist with the greatest international profile, and one of the most promising musicians of her generation.^[1] In 2022 she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.^[2]

María Dueñas Fernández was born in 2002 in Granada, Spain, in a family in which there are no professional musicians, but who encouraged her musical training, as she attended concerts from an early age.^[3]

She enrolled at the Ángel Barrios Conservatory in her native Granada when she was seven. At the age of 11, she won a scholarship from the Juventudes Musicales de Madrid, allowing her to study at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden.^[2] She then moved to Vienna to study with Boris Kuschnir, and enrolled at the University of Music and Dramatic Art in Vienna and at the University of Graz.

Dueñas has been a soloist with European and American orchestras, such as the San Francisco Symphony, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Spanish National Orchestra. In September 2019, Dueñas was designated as the New Artist of the Month by the magazine Musical America, which is the oldest American magazine on classical music.^[4]

She won the 1st prize at the 2021 Getting to Carnegie Hall competition, for which each participant performed the world premiere of one movement of Julian Gargiulo’s new sonata for violin and piano.^[5] In 2021, at the age of 18, Dueñas won the 1st prize at the Menuhin Competition, and she won the Audience Prize as well. For the competition, Dueñas played Witold Lutosławski's Subito, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, and Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole in D minor.^[6] The award includes $20,000 and a 2-year loan of a golden period Stradivarius violin. In 2023 she won the Luitpold Prize of the festival Kissinger Sommer.^[7]

Dueñas is also a composer and the founder of the Hamamelis Quartett. She composed the piece “Farewell” when she was 13, which was awarded the Robert Schumann International Piano Competition award in 2016.^[8] Her piece was later produced as a music video.[1]

• Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (2018), So klingt die Zukunft! Kammermusikfest der Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben : Benefizkonzert in der Elbphilharmonie, 12. Oktober 2018 (in no linguistic content), Hamburg: Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, OCLC 1099575265, Track 2: Ravel - Tzigane. María Dueñas (violín) & Kiveli Dörken (piano).
• Gabriel Fauré, Après un Rêve, María Dueñas (violin) & Itamar Golan (piano), 2022.^[2]
• María Dueñas, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen & Alondra de la Parra : variacions concertants de Ginastera, concert per a violí de Sibelius, simfonia núm. 7 de Dvořák: Palau de la Música Catalana, dimecres, 9 de març (in Catalan), [Barcelona]: [Palau de la Música Catalana], 2022, OCLC 1378579054

• Baliñas, Maxura (2020-03-24). "María Dueñas, seleccionada para el Concurso Menuhin". Mundoclasico.com. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
• Deutsche Grammophon (2022-08-30). "Deutsche Grammophon Signs Menuhin Competition-Winner María Dueñas". Deutsche Grammophon. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
• Rosado, Candela Martínez (2020-06-23). "No sólo escucho música clásica; soy muy curiosa y me interesa todo tipo de géneros". Granada Hoy.