Luis Parés
| Luis Parés | |
|---|---|
| Born | Caracas, Venezuela |
Luis Parés (born Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan/Italian pianist, based in the UK. He enjoys an international career as a soloist and chamber musician having performed in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America. He has appeared at the most prestigious British venues, including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and Bridgewater Hall among many others. He has appeared with distinguished orchestras in Europe and South America and made live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, RAI, Kol HaMusika Israel and Spanish radio.
Luis started his piano studies with Juan Antúnez and Igor Lavrov and later studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Gordon Fergus-Thompson and Andrew Ball and also held the Mills Williams Junior Fellowship at the RCM. He was a prize-winner at many national and international piano competitions, including First Prize at the XI Ricard Viñes International Piano Competition (Lerida, Spain) and Third Prize at the Maria Canals International Competition, duo sonatas category, in Barcelona. He was one of the winners of the 2006 Making Music Young Concert Artists Awards and he was a YCAT finalist in 2007.
Luis performs a wide range of concertos and solo works and is a keen chamber musician, with a particular interest in the string and piano repertoire. He has worked with renowned musicians such as Ani Schnarch, Walter Delahunt, Pavel Vernikov, Atar Arad, Rudolf Koelman, Giovanni Guzzo, Neil Thomson and Natalia Luis-Bassa. Luis is the Executive Director of New Virtuosi International Violin Mastercourses which take place annually in the UK and Italy.
Luis is a sought-after teacher and adjudicator and he is currently Head of Keyboard and Head of Instrumental Studies at Repton School and will take over as Head of Keyboard at Dulwich College in London from September 2016. He is also an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
Reviews
No doubt the main draw for many of the Sinfonietta concerts was the opportunity to hear the Venezuelan pianist Luis Parés. His account of Beethoven's First Concerto evinced an undoubted command of the keyboard, and his agility in the visceral passagework of the outer movements was matched by some exquisite playing in the Largo.
Richard Whitehouse
Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was the second item, in which the orchestra was joined by the Venezuelan-Italian pianist Luis Parés, a very gifted artist who gave a scintillating account of this wonderful score.
Robert Matthew-Walker
Pares is without doubt a pianist that commands all the affective range of his instrument.
Daniel Fernández (El Nuevo Herald, Miami)