A summer full of music with María José Montiel, 2015 National Music Prizewinner
The mezzo from Madrid will be awarded her medal on the 1st June by TRH the King and Queen of Spain, and she will later embark on a recital tour of Spain. Still basking in her triumph as the title role in the opera María Moliner by Antoni Parera Font in its world premiere at the Teatro de La Zarzuela, and her subsequent return to the Teatro Real in Madrid (Luisa Miller), to the Palau de la Música in Valencia (concert with the Orquesta de Valencia) and to the Teatro de La Maestranza in Seville (gala to celebrate the opera house´s 25th anniversary), the Spanish mezzo-soprano María José Montiel will be awarded the National Music Prize at a ceremony on 1st June in Palencia Cathedral, presided over by TRH the King and Queen of Spain. The award recognizes a career which is always progressing and has great international reach. “I feel grateful and honoured by this prize, which comes to me at a very positive time which is bringing me a lot of success. I would like to thank the jury, here, for thinking about me and my professional career,” the diva from Madrid notes. Afterwards, María José Montiel will go on tour, giving recitals in various cities in the country, beginning in Asturias, where she will give a recital alongside the renowned soloist Iván Martín –one of the great Spanish pianists– they will premiere pieces by the composer Guillermo Martínez at the Selgas Fagalde Foundation in Cudillero (Asturias). Later she will go to Segovia to perform alongside Miquel Estelrich on piano; to the Benicassim Opera Festival where she will sing a programme of songs and arias accompanied by the soloists from the Orquesta de Valencia before returning to the Valldemossa Chopin Festival (Majorca) where she will once again perform alongside Miquel Estelrich. Montiel will end the tour – and the summer – at the Santander International Festival, this time accompanied by Rubén Fernández Aguirre on piano.