María Dueñas: the new world violin star is this 21-year-old Spaniard

Closely attached to her violin, María Dueñas forms a whole with her instrument.

A delicate and natural rhythm where both fit.

She does not grab him tightly, she does not harass him: she holds him with the lightness that comes with a complicit tenderness and forms an alliance, a symbiosis that unites them through time.

To her, in her present, at 21 years old, and to him, in his pact with eternity, since he left Nicolò Gagliano's workshop in Naples in the mid-18th century.

Despite the distance, he treats him as a good friend, a contemporary, a colleague to whom you need to give space and trust at the same time so that, together, it is possible to reach everywhere and, if it happens at some point, achieve the hand the sky.

“It has been my faithful travel companion for eight years,” he says of his violin.

We know each other well.

And although it was not love at first sight, now it would be very difficult for me to part with him.”

The darkness that the image demands in the dressing room requires a harmonious contrast.

The camera looks for him between the whitish face, the black hair and the gaze of the Granada performer next to the wood of a tiny object in its decimal metric measurement, but capable of deploying a power of sound that illuminates every corner of the Radio France auditorium. , in Paris, where he meets us, as he does in other corners of great stages around the world.

Those that María Dueñas already knows for having become the brightest violin star in the world at her age.

Very young, true, but a star with all the letters and stripes, with enough maturity to face today the reality of what has been a dream, and is, without a doubt, his destiny.

In her case, the deep goal she pursues is to merge physically and spiritually with the music.

Essentially.

Within the circuit, what they are looking for with Dueñas is to build a career of stellar dimensions.

Straight towards Olympus.

Something that is also being fulfilled with astonishing precocity.

Only reserved for exceptions or cases that take us to what the rise of figures such as the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter represented in the seventies, led by the orchestra conductor Herbert von Karajan.

Dueñas, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2022. Allen J. Schaben (Getty Images)

All you have to do is stop in your agenda for the next two years.

It barely has a break between the five continents.

The best auditoriums await her in their programs and, in terms of orchestras and conductors, the first level.

The big league.

In April he will stop in Spain (Oviedo, Valencia and Alicante), with the conductor Paavo Järvi, and in May, for example, concerts await him, in addition to a tour with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the city where they have their headquarters. headquarters and also in Barcelona, ​​Paris and London.

The Spanish-Venezuelan maestro has bet heavily on it, as has the Spanish Gustavo Gimeno, who integrates it into their agendas with appointments all over the world.

“When I refer to María, I am not talking about a future top-level violinist.

For me she already is,” says Dudamel.

Because?

How has she achieved it when the majority, at the age of 16 when María began her career in 2018, have not finished the studies or training normally required for this?

Prodigy is a word that she is not at all comfortable with.

When uttering it, when invoking it, she is not upset or offended either.

Yes, however, she shows some disdain for the term.

"I don't like.

I prefer that each person judge what he feels when he sees me.

At five years old they can tell you, but prodigy seems too little to me.

If we think of it as a sign of talent and ability, okay.

But it's not enough.

For music you need work and discipline,” she says shortly after leaving a rehearsal of the Mendelssohn Concerto with the conductor Mikko Franck and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra on the banks of the Seine, in Paris.

Everything in order, everything good.

Nothing barely fazes her and she has just concentrated intensely on the photo session with a Zen attitude and the serenity that comes from her patient smile.

Everything under control.

With the violin next to her.

That day it was the nicolò gagliano, given to him by the german foundation Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, but it could also have been his other instrument: a stradivarius called Camposelice, built in 1710, given to him by the Nippon Music Foundation, or a more contemporary one, Erika Ciesielski's elementis omnibus, a copy of one that belonged to Ferdinand Kugler.

“The first two are unique pieces in the world, each one with a different soul and colors,” she says.

“The gagliano emits a silvery and shiny tone.

The Stradivarius is generous, with greater sound volume and warmth.”

Apart from the violins, she is accompanied on trips by Santiago, her father, or María, her mother.

And more are coming... Because in the Dueñas home—now living in Vienna—not only the eldest of her three daughters is professionally dedicated to music.

Julia, her younger sister, also starts with the same instrument and Daniela, the little one, who studies the cello, is also on her way.

With María, life in that Granada house took a turn when they were made aware of her gifted abilities.

They did not know to what extent, the day her parents took her to the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in the Andalusian city to see a concert of hers when she was four years old, everything would change.

She immediately wanted to study violin.

“I liked the shape, the voice she acquired, the sound of her, so close to a person, very close to me,” she says.

This is what continues to be investigated.

To do this, he likes to draw comparisons with painting: “It is similar to the search of a plastic artist who faces a work and must mix the colors on his palette to achieve the tone of a specific color.

Like wondering how many shades of green or blue there are and becoming aware that the answer could be: infinite.”

But without losing sight of that parallel mystery that causes the identification in the ear of another language, that of sheet music, also with infinite echoes that transmit so many things to us.

“It is my obsession, to achieve my own sound,” he says.

The ability to identify in each person what is recognized as unique.

I can guess who's playing if I like.

Something I want to achieve for myself at some point.

The objective,” says Dueñas.

Does it refer to a crucial variable in elite musicians, but at the same time intangible, mysterious?

“Also, and being able to go further.

To do this you need good technique, a base with which you do not place obstacles or impediments.

You require the right vibrato.

The speed, okay, there are people who can play faster.

But the sound is what makes the difference.

Cannot be copied.

It belongs to you and no one else.”

María Dueñas has already released her first album with the Deutsche Grammophon label with Beethoven's 'Violin Concerto' and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.Julie Glassberg (Contact)

He is stubbornly, obsessively stalking that path.

With a firm foot and good teachers on stage.

Like Dudamel and also Gustavo Gimeno.

We are talking about the most international Spanish conductor, head of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony and who from 2025 will be musical director of the Teatro Real.

“María has everything,” says Gimeno.

“But, mainly, expressive and emotional intensity in each note.

His great technical mastery is very musical.

Furthermore, she is a marvel of the stage, occupying it as her habitat.

She does not transmit nerves, but rather great self-confidence.”

They are attributes learned, worked on, that denote an exclusive gift.

In each strength, María stands out: in technique, mastery;

for the musical sense, taste.

Regarding the search for her own sound, ambition.

And, furthermore, says Gimeno, facing the audience and the orchestra, she displays charisma and a genuine, different light.

“Few have her, that's why she is where she is,” says the Valencian musician.

Talents like this emerge very occasionally.

“They happen, they sprout in an organic, natural way, but very exceptionally,” says Dudamel.

The Spanish-Venezuelan conductor, chosen last year as principal of the New York Philharmonic, knows this well—especially after Simon Rattle, perhaps the most brilliant conductor of his generation, expressed it this way to his grandmother Engracia: “Madam, “Cases like that of your grandson happen once every 100 years.”

Dudamel was very young and another phenomenon.

That's why he knows what he's talking about.

Being singled out is not enough to make a difference.

From there, with the basis of the prodigious consciousness that others point out in you, there is no other way out than her work: “María has an impressive discipline, I have seen her study and I check her progress year after year.” .

Both teachers agree on the same point that Gimeno highlighted when rating Dueñas: “Expressive intensity,” they state separately.

The Spanish from Toronto and the Spanish-Venezuelan from Los Angeles.

“An expressive intensity that dominates and is not afraid to contain,” Dudamel qualifies.

Also, they point out, humility.

“He likes to learn, he listens, he doesn't disregard any advice, he assimilates it,” adds the latter.

That humility comes from an awareness of origins and eternal gratitude to his parents for sacrificing everything in his study and career.

When at the age of 12 her level within the pedagogical plans had reached that of an 18-year-old student, they recommended that they expand her training outside of Granada.

Santiago abandoned his job as a civil guard and her mother stopped working as a teacher.

María had progressed in an uncontrollable way on the official scale and they decided to look for a way out.

In Dresden, Germany.

There, with the help of a Juventudes Musicales scholarship, they achieved a place at the Carl Maria von Weber school and she continued to grow adapted, but constantly out of place.

In a cold city as opposed to Granada and in classes where her classmates were six years older than her.

“My father and I moved, at first, it was hard.

Then my mother and my sisters arrived.”

At first, he says today, he was little aware of the change.

The drive of music motivated her.

Although that didn't mean she sacrificed her childhood in a traumatic way.

At all times, her dedication depended on her will.

Nothing imposed.

“I didn't stop depriving myself of other things that I liked.

Swimming, reading…, the violin was something else.”

Not all.

She liked sports, going to school, at the Agustinos of Granada.

“Everything was natural, my friends knew that I played the violin and it didn't seem like anything extraordinary to them, simply another part of my life, which was mainly divided between school and the conservatory.

I liked it, I didn't dedicate myself because I was forced to do it,” she says.

“Although…”, there he stops for a moment to reflect, “I didn't know it would cost me so much…”.

Then she sees something positive in this nuance.

“That innocence is good, as a girl.

I wanted to constantly improve.

I like to improve myself.

I was aware that music required effort and that effort, far from stopping me, made me excited, I worked for it.

That has stayed with me.

Every sacrifice you invest is felt, it is noticed.”

That desire, the obsession with learning that Dudamel and Gimeno pointed out, is not only based by Dueñas on exercise, but also on observation of the old masters.

From David Oistrakh to Itzhak Perlman or Yehudi Menuhin.

Something that also emerges in his style, as confirmed by maestro Josep Pons, musical director of the Liceu of Barcelona, ​​former head of the National Orchestra of Spain for more than a decade until 2014 and recently appointed head of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in Germany, starting in 2025. The Catalan musician directed it last summer at the BBC Proms in London.

"A violinist from the orchestra told me: 'It reminds us of the sound of the past.'

She was referring to that of the great masters, in her very neat tuning, it is something that makes her unique.

To the comment, Pons adds other virtues: “she has very good rhythm, which comes from her Andalusian origin.

She knows how to play with tempo, move, she achieves the opposite of rigidity and draws poetry from firmness.”

This is what the juries of the competitions he has won to date must have also seen, such as the Zhuhai International Competition, in China, at the age of 14, and, later, the Viktor Tretyakov in 2021, the Getting to Carnegie Hall, the Vladimir Spivakov in 2018 or Menuhin also in 2021, whose streaming broadcast astonished in the year after the pandemic.

To all of them we must add the Princess of Girona Award for Arts and Letters, which he received in 2023 in recognition of the projection of his talent.

María Dueñas, with a 'nicolò gagliano' violin.

Julie Glassberg (Contact)

María Dueñas does not approach contests in the same way as performances.

“For me they have been goals and challenges, a date to prepare an extensive repertoire to play in a short time.

You need physical and psychological preparation.

They come to see you at a concert, in a competition there are no friends.

Everyone expects error and you cannot fail.

I notice it in the preparation.

I play very differently, depending on what they are looking for, I give it another approach as they are programs that you do not decide,” she says.

His teacher Boris Kuschnir, with whom he wanted to study in Vienna after his time in Dresden, has been fundamental in his progression.

In the Austrian capital, Dueñas fits perfectly.

“There music is the center of society, that tradition is important.

The music coheres.

I travel a lot, but I haven't found anywhere else that makes me feel better.

When we went to Vienna, everything was already clear and the cards were marked for the future,” he comments.

To begin with, his determination to work with Kuschnir.

The Ukrainian teacher is his great guide today.

“I had to pass my test.

I played the Khachaturian Concerto, the Carmen fantasy and a Mozart piece.

I wanted to learn with him, he is the teacher who has given me the most in all aspects: technique as a very firm basis for everything.

But, then, pay attention to every detail, have the sound very present, as the true center.”

The growth alongside her teacher has definitely catapulted the violinist.

Her superiority in the contests also caught the attention of the record companies, who raffled her off.

Dueñas and her family, together with Lothar Schacke, the German agent who began working with her, chose to join forces to develop her career around the world with the Deutsche Grammophon (DG) label.

It wasn't easy to choose, says Dueñas.

“Each one has their own ideas and plans, we received several offers, but DG convinced us.

It was the one that most closely resembled what I wanted to do with his proposal.”

Her support for her commitment to wanting to record Beethoven's Violin Concerto with a cadence of her own, written by her.

A daring to launch the first album on the market.

They said yes and that attitude was decisive.

For this they had the Vienna Symphony and Manfred Honeck as conductor.

“I wanted it to be my first recording and to go big.

It is a concert that is not based on virtuosity: sound prevails.

I had to prove who I was,” she says.

On the cover of the album Dueñas appears with his stradivarius and there you can see the texture of his partner.

“The varnish is absolutely beautiful.

Dark and complex,” he says.

All instruments offer different learning possibilities to the musician.

“It is a path that requires time and patience to discover what the violin can offer and how to achieve it,” he says.

In Beethoven's piece you can hear and sense this process of mutual relationship perfectly.

Furthermore, although no one has dared to start their recording career with this piece, it has accompanied her in many stages and she mastered it enough to take the risk.

“It is the work with which I have grown the most.”

Recording there, in Vienna, excited her.

“I looked for traces around the city, I read a lot about the creation process and the premiere.

"It was a catastrophe, it had no success, the violinist received the scores half an hour early."

Her determination to present herself on a record with Beethoven's piece denotes another virtue: a very early sense of responsibility for the music in which she believes.

It also happens with rare works, such as Johan Halvorsen's Concerto from 1909, which has almost disappeared from theater programs: “I would like it to be admitted back into the classical repertoire,” he says.

As could happen, if time deems it appropriate, with the one that Dudamel has commissioned for her from the composer Gabriela Ortiz.

Rope Altar is titled and they premiered it together at the Walt Disney Auditorium in Los Angeles in 2022.

Pieces for her with a deep meaning.

With the ability to stop breath and attention.

“The good thing about music is that for a moment you can forget what is happening in the world.

It is an art that connects us all a lot, even though we apparently have nothing to do with each other.

When I play somewhere new I feel that bond.”

Also in Spain, where it now visits little.

“There are many other less important things that are above music in my country and I feel like it shouldn't be that way.

I had a difficult time continuing my education, it would seem good to make it more accessible in schools.”

Perhaps, in time, she would like to teach: “I could become a teacher in the future.

I am very interested in pedagogy, I admire teachers and I know the work that goes into it.

“They inspire me a lot.”

It is a world that she knows well from the work of her mother.

And because at her house they knew how to transmit her avid reading, dedication and sense of play by keeping her away from the mobile phone: “I didn't have one until I was 16,” she says.

But books, several.

Also in her literary tastes she shows precocity.

“My favorite book is The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald.

But I also admire Stefan Zweig.”

A good teacher, the author of The World of Yesterday and A Chess Novel, another of his favorites, to delve into Vienna.

Necessary to understand, with a look back at her time, the context in which the violinist now lives and to grow on a personal level, in equal measure to what she has done, amazingly, as a musical performer.

“Whoever believes in reincarnation would say that they have learned it in another life,” says Josep Pons.

“If she plays like that today, with that interpretive maturity that she carries within her with talent in its purest form, what will she be like in 10 years?”

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