María Dueñas

The rise of Spanish violinist María Dueñas has been remarkable, even by modern virtuoso standards. Born in Granada in 2002, she won First Prize and Audience Prize at the Menuhin Competition, joined the BBC’s New Generation Artists scheme, signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG), and made her Proms debut—all before reaching the age of 21. Aged just 11, Dueñas won a scholarship to study in Dresden, and she was subsequently taught by Boris Kuschnir in Vienna. While a teenager, she made notable debuts with major orchestras and at leading recital venues across the USA and Europe. She launched her DG recording career with an enthusiastically reviewed Beethoven Violin Concerto, in which she showcased a gleaming tone underpinned by total technical mastery and an intensely personal approach to interpretation. Its imaginative couplings were six cadenzas for the concerto, alongside short works by the composers of each cadenza. Dueñas plays a pair of 18th-century instruments: a Gagliano, and the Stradivarius “Camposelice” of 1710.