Deutsche Grammophon has signed an exclusive contract with Spanish violinist María Dueñas, the winner of the prestigious 2021 Menuhin Competition. Her debut album for the Yellow Label will be the Beethoven Violin Concerto, with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck, to be released in May 2023. Dueñas will be playing her own cadenzas. 

Born in Granada in 2002, and now based in Vienna, Dueñas enrolled at the Ángel Barrios Conservatory in her native city aged seven, and four years later was awarded a scholarship to study abroad by Juventudes Musicales Madrid. It was while a student at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden that she was spotted by conductor Marek Janowski, with whom she’d later make her debut as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony.

‘I grew up listening to my mother’s vinyl DG recordings of Milstein and Oistrakh, said Dueñas. ‘So of course I’m thrilled to join the label myself and especially to have the opportunity to record one of the greatest violin concertos ever written.’

DG’s Senior A&R Director, Valérie Gross, described her as an ‘audacious young musician’, adding, ‘there’s a special magic in her playing – an energy and lightness combined with extraordinary depth and sensibility.’

A committed chamber musician, Dueñas has given recitals with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Itamar Golan, among others. She has also premiered several works written for her by the late Catalan composer Jordi Cervelló, including the Milstein Caprice, and earlier this year gave the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar de cuerda, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Dueñas is also a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, a highly successful guide to today’s finest young musicians.