In 2023, Josu De Solaun won his second ICMA (international Classical Music Awards) award, this time in the category of soloist (the previous award was in the chamber music category).

 

The ICMA jury wrote as follows:

 

“Josu de Solaun is one of the outstanding discoveries of the last decade. This pianist is not only technically impressive, but his interpretative imagination also knows no bounds. These readings are an ideal reflection of De Solaun’s capacity to interact with works symbiotically and at the highest energy levels. Free of any aesthetic dogmas, the pianist here creates a cosmos of a solitary nature.”

 

De Solaun won First Prize at the 13th International George Enescu Piano Competition in Bucharest (previously won by the legendary pianists Radu Lupu and Elisabeth Leonskaja), the 15th International José Iturbi Competition and the 1st European Union Piano Competition.

 

He is the only Spanish pianist to have won either the Enescu or Iturbi competitions. After his win at the Enescu Competition, he was invited to a private reception with the King and Queen of Spain at the Royal Palace in Madrid. In 2019, Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania, made him an Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of the Republic of Romania.

 

De Solaun has performed as a soloist with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, the La Fenice Philharmonic Orchestra of Venice, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest, the Bucharest Radio Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Bilbao, the Orchestra of Valencia, the Symphony Orchestra of Sioux City, the Symphony Orchestra of Monterey, the Symphony Orchestra of Euskadi, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Malaga, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moravia, the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia, the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra (RTVE), the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra of New York, the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bari (Italy) and the Spanish National Orchestra.

 

Josu De Solaun is a citizen of Spain and the United States. He earned an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree and a doctorate in Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music. He lived in Manhattan for 20 years, from 1999 to 2019, where his main musical influences were the pianists Nina Svetlanova and Horacio Gutiérrez and the composer Giampaolo Braccali. He also studied chamber music with Isidore Cohen.

 

His main influences in Spain until the age of 17 were María Teresa Naranjo Ochoa, Ana Guijarro and Salvador Chuliá.