If you will recall, in 2020 the city was just getting ready to host the best young violinists in the world for the prestigious Menuhin Competition. Often described as “the Olympics of the violin,” the internationally watched event was canceled due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
Then in 2021, the event was converted into an online competition with co-hosts VPM (which owns Style Weekly), the University of Richmond, the city of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. That event garnered over 9 million viewers globally, according to a press release.
Now the winner of that online competition is coming to Richmond in person. Spanish prodigy María Dueñas was only 18 when she won the senior level first prize of the competition and her career has taken off since then, including performances at the Hollywood Bowl and other international stages.
The Richmond Symphony is “delighted” to invite her back to perform with the orchestra she was meant to meet back in 2020. According to a press release: “She will be the featured violin soloist for Lalo’s ‘Symphonie espagnole,’ conducted by the Symphony’s music director Valentina Peleggi, who will also conduct a new work by young Mexican sound-shaper Juan Pablo Contreras and Brahms’ haunting Third Symphony.”
For more details or to purchase tickets, click here.
María Dueñas performs with the Richmond Symphony for Symphony Series 5: Brahms’ Third Symphony on Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center with doors at 6 p.m. and show at 8 p.m. There will be another matinee show on Sunday, Feb. 26 with doors at 1:30 p.m. and show at 3 p.m.