Josu De Solaun

As a First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition in Bucharest (founded in 1958 and won by legendary pianists such as Radu Lupu, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Dmitri Alexeev), the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the First European Union Piano Competition, held in Prague, Spanish pianist Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in distinguished concert series throughout the world, having made notable appearances in Bucharest (Romanian Athenaeum), Venice (Teatro La Fenice), St. Petersburg (Mariinsky Theatre), Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center), New York (Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera), Princeton (Taplin Hall), London (Southbank Centre), Paris (Salle Cortot), Leipzig (Schumann-Haus), Taipei (Novel Hall), Mexico City (Sala Silvestre Revueltas), Prague (Nostitz Palace), Rome (Academia de España), Menton (Festival International de Musique), and all major cities of Spain. He is the only pianist from Spain to win the Enescu and Iturbi competitions in their respective histories, and was invited to a private reception with the King and Queen of Spain at the Royal Palace after winning the coveted Bucharest prize.

Beginning at a young age, he has performed in France, Georgia, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, The Netherlands, Mexico, Chile, and Switzerland as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, playing under conductors such as Constantine Orbelian, Ormsby Wilkins, Ilarion Ionescu-Galați, Robert Houlihan, Karl Sollak, Marco de Prosperis, Alvise Casellati, Ovidiu Bălan, Horia Andreescu, Radu Postăvaru, Christian Badea, Bruno Aprea, Ramón Tebar, Justus Frantz, Francesco Angelico, Yaron Traub, Max Bragado, Paul Daniel, Ryan Haskins, Theodore Kuchar, Jonathan Pasternack, Yuri Krasnapolsky și Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, among others, as well as with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Orchestra Filarmonica della Fenice of Venice, George Enescu Philharmonic of Bucharest, Bucharest Radio Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras in Timișoara, Cluj, Oradea, Brașov, Ploiești, Iași, Târgu Mureș and Satu Mare, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Orquesta de Valencia, Rudolf Barshai Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra (RTVE), American Ballet Theatre Orchestra of New York, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, and Bari Philharmonic Orchestra of Italy.

His performances have been broadcast on Spanish National Radio and TV, Taiwanese National TV, Czech National TV, as well as on New York’s WQXR, Princeton’s WPRB, and Chicago’s WFMT.

His repertoire includes rare piano concerti like Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety, Giuseppe Martucci’s Second Piano Concerto, Britten’s Diversions, Hummel’s A minor Piano Concerto, Constantinescu’s Piano Concerto, as well as the complete concerti of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Bartók.

He has recorded the complete works for piano by George Enescu for the NAXOS Grand Piano label and Les Noces by Stravinsky, also for the same label, with JoAnn Falletta as conductor. Future releases include an album of Czech piano music, and concerti by Liszt and Bartók.

Josu De Solaun is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where his two main teachers and main musical influences have been pianists Nina Svetlanova and Horacio Gutiérrez.