Juan Elvira Marquez
Juan Elvira Márquez was born in Granada (Spain) in 1998. He began studying piano at the age of 6 with Andrei Reznik and studied with him until he was 17 years old. From 2015 to 2019, he completed the Piano Baccalaureate at the Badajoz Conservatory with Alexander Kandelaki; He obtained the highest grade in the "Final Concert" and the "Special End of Studies Award". After completing the Piano Master's degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (HfMT), with Professor Aleksandr Madzar and graduating with top marks, he continued his postgraduate studies there.
He has participated in master classes by Stefania Neonato, Joanna Lawrynowicz, Klaus Hellwig, Marc Lys, Irina Plotnikova, Yves Henry, Nino Kereselidze, José Luis Castillo, Luca Chiantore, Claudio Martínez Mehner, David Kuyken, Marta Gulyas, Alessandro D'Onofrio, Luis Fernando Pérez, Romano Pallotini and Iván Martín. In the summer of 2021, he was selected to actively participate in Elisabeth Leonskaja's master classes at the Hochscule für Musik Lübeck. He has attended numerous piano academies in France, Spain, Austria, Russia and Hungary. Among the most important are the International Summer Academy (2013) at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he gave a recital at the "We gather friends" festival, and the Summer Academy (2017) in Salzburg at the Mozarteum University, where he was selected to play at the Vienna Hall.
He won the special prize for best Albéniz performance at the "Concours International d'Ile de France" (May 2017). That same year he was a finalist in the "Certamen Nacional Intercentros Melómano" in Alicante (Spain). In January 2019, he performed the Concerto op. 54 by Schumann at the "Palacio de Congresos" in Badajoz, with the orchestra of the city's conservatory. In October 2020 he is invited to the "Coherence" series at the Klangmanufaktur in Hamburg. In November 2020 he has been selected to perform Beethoven's Third Concerto for Piano and Orchestra as a soloist with the Hamburg HfMT orchestra. That same month, he performed in the "Stars of Tomorrow" series at Harburg's Town Hall. In May 2021 he was a finalist in the "Robert Schumann" international piano competition in Zwickau and was invited as a soloist by the University of Granada for a recital at the "Casa del Almirante". In May 2022, he is a finalist in the “Sounds of the Land of Fire International Music Competition” in Vienna and participates in the Blackbox Natur project of the Clab Festival at the Elbphilarmonie Hamburg. In September of the same year he won second prize at the “Rising Stars Grand Prix” in Berlin. In June he is invited by the Armilla House of Culture to offer a solo recital and a few days later he gives his first concert in Paris at the “Le Regard du Cygne” hall, garnering excellent reviews. In June 2023 he plays at the cité des arts in Paris and at the Salon Écritoire in Berlin, giving solo recitals on both occasions. In August it's time at the Frauen Finanzamt in Hamburg and in October he is invited by 100xCiencia at the Granada Science Park. Throughout the year he receives scholarships from three highly prestigious foundations: the María Paula Alonso Foundation, the Wardwell-Stipendium of the Humblodt Foundation and the Clavarte Foundation. More recently he was awarded the Gold Hands Price and Best Schumann Price in the Professional Category in Carles & Sofia Piano Competition.
Juan currently resides in Berlin, where he teaches classical piano at the prestigious Musikschule Schostakovich. Since 2022 he has been the founder, artist in residence and artistic director of the Festival Jóvenes Intérpretes de Música Clásica de Armilla, Granada.