María Dueñas

Spanish violinist María Dueñas captivates audiences with the breathtaking array of colours she draws from her instrument. Her technical prowess, artistic maturity, and bold interpretations have earned rave reviews, captivated competition juries, and led to invitations to perform with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.

Since September 2022, María Dueñas has held an exclusive contract with the legendary Deutsche Grammophon and was awarded the Opus Klassik Prize for her debut album. After winning several international violin competitions, including the Zhuhai International Mozart Competition (2017) and the Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition (2018), she achieved further success: excelling at the Menuhin Competition (2021), winning first prize in the “Getting to Carnegie” Competition, the Grand Prix of the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, and the Sponsorship Award of the Rheingau Music Festival. She was also selected by BBC Radio 3 as one of the New Generation Artists for 2021–2023.

In previous seasons, Dueñas debuted with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Herbert Blomstedt, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic under Manfred Honeck, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the San Francisco Symphony and Dresdner Philharmonie with Marek Janowski, the Staatskapelle Berlin with Christian Thielemann and Alain Altinoglu, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, the Staatskapelle Dresden under Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Marin Alsop, among others. In August 2021, Dueñas made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl, and in May 2022 she joined them again to give the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto, “Altar de Cuerda”—of which she is the dedicatee—in sold-out concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and in Boston.

Highlights of the 2025–2026 season include her return to the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a tour with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Nobel Prize Concert at the Stockholm Awards Gala alongside Semyon Bychkov, and exciting debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karina Canellakis and the New York Philharmonic with her long-time collaborator, Manfred Honeck.

To celebrate the 90th birthday of the renowned conductor Zubin Mehta, tribute concerts will take place in Spain, featuring María Dueñas alongside the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, with Maestro Mehta on the podium.

As a stipendiary of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, María Dueñas plays the Giambattista Guadagnini violin of 1779 and the Antonio Stradivarius “Michelangelo” (1718), on generous loan from a private collector.