Spanish Young Music Talents: Raquel Areal in Washington, DC

Spanish violinist Raquel Areal gives a recital at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain as part of the “Spanish Young Music Talents” program.

Spanish Young Music Talents (SYMT) is the new program of the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C. SYMT has been envisioned to enhance and support Spanish young musicians’ careers, in collaboration with U.S. music schools and universities at a higher level (bachelor and graduate students orchestras), offering them an experience abroad.

SYMT aims to offer young musicians not only a concert or recital in the U.S., but a complete experience with complementary activities such as masterclasses, talks, conferences, etc. to broaden their opportunities and contacts. All visiting musicians are winners of the Juventudes Musicales de España national award and under 30 years old.

Program

• Nocturne for violin and piano, Lili Boulanger
• Emigrantes Celtas (solo violin), Manuel Quiroga
• Sonata for violin and piano in No. 2 in G Major, Maurice Ravel
• Andaluza (Andalusian Spanish Dance No. 5), Enrique Granados

• Elegiac Poem Op. 12, Eugène Ysaÿe
• Café 1930, Astor Piazzolla
• La vida breve, Manuel de Falla

About Raquel Areal

Raquel Areal was ducated at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin under the guidance of Zakhar Bron, Yuri Volguin, and Kolja Blacher. Areal is a laureate of the International Wieniawski & Lipinski Competition. She has worked with several orchestras such as Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta del Teatro Real, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquestra Casa da Música (Porto) among others, and with conductors such as Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dima Slobodeniouk, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, András Schiff, Péter Eötvös, Daniel Baremboim, David Afkham and Gustavo Dudamel. She collaborates as concertmaster and assistant concertmaster of orchestras such as Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta Casa da Música as well as with the Staatskapelle Berlin during the months of March and April 2024.

Her repertoire spans from the baroque and romantic periods to contemporary music, having performed as a soloist in halls across Germany, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, and the United States under the batons of Pedro Neves, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Jean-Marc Burfin, Tadeusz Wicherek, and Pietro Rizzo, and with musicians such as Zakhar Bron, Ivan Klánsky, Miklós Perényi.

In November 2023 she performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with teacher and violist Nobuko Imai at Palacio da Bolsa, in Porto. As a member of the Oscar Esplá Quartet, she received the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth Award at the JME 2019 Competition. At the age of 22, she won first violin tutti position in the National Orchestra of Spain, where she has been a member since November 2022. She was awarded the scholarship of the Alexander von Humbolt Foundation for the year 2023/24.