Alba Ventura (born 1978) is a Spanish
classical pianist. She made her debut as a concert soloist at the age of 13, performing with the
Cadaqués Orchestra The Cadaqués Orchestra (''Orquesta de Cadaqués'' panish ''Orquestra de Cadaqués'' atalan is a chamber orchestra based in Cadaqués, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 1988 to be the resident orchestra of the Cadaqués Festival, the orchestra has sinc ...
of Spain, and went on to have an international solo career. She is a professor at the
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu.
Early life and education
Ventura was born in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
in 1978.
She started playing the piano at the age of five. At the age of ten, she began attending the Acadèmia Marshall in Barcelona, where she studied with pianist
Alicia de Larrocha.
Career
As a soloist, Ventura has performed with a number of orchestras in Spain and internationally, including the
Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra
The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia ( ca, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, OBC; ) is a symphony orchestra based in Barcelona, Spain. Since April 1999, the Orchestra has had its headquart ...
,
Orquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu, the
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, W ...
, the
London Mozart Players
London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
History
B ...
, the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
She has also held recitals at
Wigmore Hall in London,
and toured China and the United States.
As a chamber musician, Ventura has collaborated with other artists, including
the Brodsky and
Takacs quartets,
violinist
Boris Belkin
Boris Davidovich Belkin (russian: Борис Давидович Белкин; born 26 January 1948) is a Soviet-born violin virtuoso.
Teachers
He was taught by Yuri Yankelevich and Isaac Stern.
Early years
As a child prodigy he began studying ...
, violist Isabel Villanueva,
and cellist
Astrig Siranossian
Astrig Siranossian is a French cellist born on 19 December .
Biography
In 2015, she was invited to spend three years as an artist in residence at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Waterloo, as well as for the Singer-Polignac Foundation ...
.
Ventura is a professor at the
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu.
In 2023, Alba Ventura was invited to appear as "premiere pianist" in the soloist role for Spain's Balearic Symphony Orchestra,
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
.
Awards and honours
In 1998, Ventura was selected in the international auditions of the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT).
In 2010, Ventura was awarded the Fundació Príncep de Girona (FPdGi) Arts and Literature Award "for her aptitude, precociousness and sensitivity in piano interpretations".
In 2019, Catalonian Minister of Culture
Mariàngela Vilallonga
Mariàngela Vilallonga Vives (Girona, 3 April 1952) is a Spanish professor of Latin philology at the University of Girona. Between 2017 and 2019 she was second vice-president of the Institute of Catalan Studies, an institution where she held sev ...
awarded Ventura the Albéniz Medal at the closing ceremony of the 34th
Isáac Albéniz Festival.
Discography
* ''Rachmaninoff'' (2009)
* ''Études'' (2016)
* ''Mozart: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1'' (2020)
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventura, Alba
Spanish women pianists
Musicians from Barcelona
Academic staff of the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
1978 births
Living people