Martín García García Stuns at Carnegie Hall

The outstanding young Spanish pianist Martín García García, lauded for his compelling interpretive skills, has recently been invited to tour as soloist with orchestras and in recital throughout Poland, Japan, Germany, and his native Spain.

Reviewing the 2021 Cleveland Competition for the August 8, 2021 edition of the Plain Dealer, Zachary Lewis wrote: “Four finalists took home rare, hard-won awards, and one of them earned the contest’s top prize. At the peak of one of the world’s most elite musical fields emerged the youngest of the four finalists in 2021, Spanish pianist Martín García García.” “The 24-year old gave a moving performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Cleveland Orchestra under conductor Jahja Ling,” praised International Piano (August 2021). “García’s pedigree…is about as good as it could be,” was the verdict of Musical America, which named him “New Artist of the Month” in September 2021.

As soloist with orchestra, Mr. García García is already much in demand. Last November, he toured with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2; a highlight was the performance with the Warsaw Philharmonic at EXPO 2020 in Dubai under the baton of Andrey Boreyko. In February of this year he was soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra in Poznań, Poland; the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in March with Sinfonia Varsovia at Teatr Wielki under the baton of Alexandr Markovic; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Japan at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater with the 21st Century Orchestra conducted by Yukio Kitahara in June; and Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV488 in A major with Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra in June led by Sebastian Weigle at Suntory Hall.

This summer Mr. García García performed Chopin and Albeniz at the prestigious Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg; Mozart and Chopin at the Societé Chopin Festival in the Orangerie of the Parc de Bagatelle, Paris; and Liszt, Mozart, and Chopin at the Ateneo de Madrid, in Madrid, Spain. He was presented on the Master Series by the International Keyboard Institute & Festival (IKIF) at Merkin Hall in New York. Reviewing the New York recital, noted critic Donald Isler wrote in the July 17, 2022 edition of New York Concert Review, “Mr. García is an excellent Mozart player!” Of his rendition of the Chopin sonata, he felt “one heard a real understanding of the idiom,” and he concluded his critique simply by saying “this is a pianist I would like to hear again!” In August he appears in recital throughout Poland, notably at the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw, at the Valdemossa Festival in Mallorca, and the Festival d’Estiú Ciutadella in Menorca.

In the 2022-2023 season, he will make his debut with the Barcelona City Orchestra (OBC) performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Roderick Cox. November takes him once again to Japan, where he will be playing both the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto with the Tokyo Philharmonic, conducted by Shuntaro Sato. Also in November, he has been invited, as one of the youngest pianists to date, to give a solo recital at Suntory Hall, Japan.

Mr. García García has won prizes in several additional competitions, including, most recently, Third Prize and Special Award for Best Concerto at the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. He is the recipient of the 2022 Jeffrey Tate Prize from the Hamburg Symphony. In 2018, he won First Prize at the International Keyboard Institute & Festival Competition.

Mr. García García received his Master’s degree in Piano Performance under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed pianist Jerome Rose from the Mannes School of Music in New York. Mr. Rose called him “one of the greatest talents I’ve seen in my career.” He is also a graduate of the esteemed Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, where for ten years he studied with one of the major proponents of the Russian School of piano playing, Galina Eguiazarova, and was awarded the highest honors, including the Best Student prize by Her Majesty the Queen Sofía of Spain. For several decades, Ms. Eguiazarova, whose students included, among others, Radu Lupu and Arkady Volodos, taught alongside legendary Russian pianist Dimitri Bashkirov.

Born in Gijón, Spain, Mr. García García began his musical studies at age five; his early teachers were Natalia Mazoun and Ilyà Goldfarb. He currently divides his time between Madrid and New York City.