Josu De Solaun has been hailed by the international press for his “poetic sense of sound, artistic vision and brilliant virtuoso skills, entirely at the service of the works being performed.” Nikolaus Frey (Fuldaer Zeitung). He is an extraordinarily prolific pianist-composer performing in many of the world’s most celebrated halls as concerto soloist, chamber musician, solo piano recitalist, improviser and composer.
His disc of Haydn piano sonatas on the IBS Classical label won Best Solo Instrumental Recording at the 2023 International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). The jury of twenty of Europe’s most respected music journalists stated: “Josu de Solaun is one of the most impressive discoveries of the past decade. Not only is this pianist technically impressive, but his interpretative imagination also knows no limits. These readings ideally reflect de Solaun’s ability to engage with works symbiotically and on the highest energy levels. Free of aesthetic dogma, the pianist creates here a cosmos of a solitary nature.” In 2021, he also received ICMA’s Best Chamber Music Recording Award for Fantasque, an album of French duo sonatas with violinist Franziska Pietsch, on the Audite label. His latest solo album of beloved works by Brahms and Schumann for IBS Classical, entitled Digressions, has garnered excellent reviews.
First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition, Bucharest, the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the First European Union Piano Competition, Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in distinguished concert halls throughout the world, including the Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest, Teatro La Fenice, Mariinsky Theatre, The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera, London’s Southbank Centre, Salle Cortot, Leipzig’s Schumann Haus, Hamburg’s Elb Philharmonie, Taipei’s Novel Hall, Mexico City’s Sala Silvestre Revueltas, Prague’s Nostitz Palace, Academia de España, Menton Festival International de Musique, Rome’s Castel Sant'Angelo, Palazzo della Cancilleria in Vatican City, and all the major cities of Spain. He is the only pianist from Spain to win the Enescu and Iturbi competitions in their respective histories, and was honored at a private reception with the King and Queen of Spain after winning the coveted Bucharest prize. In 2019 he was given the title of Officer of Cultural Merit, a state decoration, by Klaus Iohannis, president of Romania.
Beginning at a young age, he has performed in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, Japan, China, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Chile, as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, Orchestra Filarmonica la Fenice of Venice, George Enescu Philharmonic of Bucharest, Bucharest Radio Orchestra, Timisoara Philharmonic, Cluj Philharmonic, Oradea Philharmonic, Brasov Philharmonic, Ploiesti Philharmonic, Iasi Philharmonic, Targu Mures Philharmonic, Satu Mare Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Orquesta de Valencia, Rudolf Barshai Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Malaga Philharmonica Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de la Region de Murcia, Spain’s Radio and Television Orchestra (RTVE), American Ballet Theatre Orchestra of New York, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, and Bari Philharmonic Orchestra of Italy. His performances have been broadcast on Spanish National Radio and TV, Taiwanese National TV, Czech National TV, as well as on New York’s WQXR, Princeton’s WPRB, and Chicago’s WFMT.
Josu De Solaun’s repertoire includes rarely performed piano concerti such as Leonard Bernstein's Symphony Nr. 2 "The Age of Anxiety", Giuseppe Martucci's 2nd Piano Concerto, Britten's Diversions, Hummel's A-Minor piano concerto, Constantinescu's Piano Concerto, as well as the complete concerti of Liszt, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Bartók. He is also an avid improviser and frequently plays completely improvised solo piano recitals.
His creative voice is expressed in a large range of recordings including the complete works for piano of George Enescu for the NAXOS Grand Piano label, Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Joann Falletta conducting, two chamber music discs for Audite, the live, improvised León recital, titled panDEMiCity and beloved piano music of Schumann and Brahms for IBS Classical.
In August 2023, he will record Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 3 with Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León for IBS Classical. Next season will feature the premiere of his own concertino for piano and orchestra. His volume of poetry, titled Las Grietas, was published by EDICTORALIA in 2021.
Josu De Solaun, a citizen of Spain and the United States, earned his doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music. His two main musical mentors in New York were pianists Nina Svetlanova and Horacio Gutiérrez, as well as composers Giampaolo Bracali and Salvador Chuliá (this last one in his native Spain). He also studied piano with Albert Lotto and Edna Golandsky, both of which he considers fundamental influences in his approach, and chamber music with Isidore Cohen of the Beaux-Arts Trio. A resident of New York City from 1999 to 2019, De Solaun currently resides in Madrid, where he helped craft the performance curriculum to teach young artists from around the world at the Musical Arts Madrid academy, where he is also Visiting Professor.