Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ BUAJASAN
Pianist

Jorge received a grant to buy a piano.

What is your artistic background ?
I started playing the piano at the age of eight at the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory in Havana. I benefited from high-quality teaching and I was pushed to take my first steps on the piano scene at the age of 10 after having won international competitions. At the age of 15 I received the support of the Cuban Ministry of Culture to continue my studies in Paris. I was first a student at the CRR of Paris before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) where I obtained a master’s degree in piano and another in chamber music. During my years at the CNSMDP I was a student of Hortense Cartier-Bresson and received guidance from Claire Désert, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Menahem Pressler and Radu Lupu. During these years I was laureate of the KlavierOlymp Competition in Bad Kissingen (1st Prize and Audience Prize), of the Clara Haskil Competition (Critics' Choice Award) and, more recently, of the International Chamber Music Competition in Lyon with Manon Galy (1st Prize and all Special Prizes). Following these various prizes, I was invited to play as a soloist with the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Lawrence Foster at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in July 2016. This was followed by several recitals at the Beethovenfest in Bonn, at the Herkulessaal in Munich (broadcasted by Bayerische Rundfunk) and, still in Munich, a recital alongside Elisabeth Leonskaja for the "Stars and Rising Stars" Festival. Since then, I’ve had the chance to be invited to play, among others, at the closing concert of the Festival de La Roque d'Anthéron with Renaud Capuçon and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, at the Festival Piano Jacobins in Riga, with the Latvian National Orchestra under the direction of Vassily Sinaïski and with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte Carlo under the direction of Stanislav Kochanovsky. I also had the opportunity to play chamber music with the soloists of the Orchestre National de France and to perform Beethoven's 3rd Concerto under the direction of Felix Mildenberger at the Auditorium de Radio France and I was also invited to play in the first part of a chamber music concert by Christian Zacharias. Chamber Music is very important in my life, which is why I founded the Trio Zeliha in 2018 alongside Manon Galy (violin) and Maxime Quennesson (cello). We recorded our first CD with the Mirare label, which was released in November 2020. It has received praise from Alfred Brendel, Menahem Pressler as well as 5 Diapasons, 5 Etoiles de Classica and great reviews in the music magazines The Strad and Gamophone (voted Gramophone's January Editors’ choice). We have been invited to play in the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Season, at the Salle de la Grange au Lac at the Evian Festival, in recital at La Roque d'Antheron and more recently, at the Easter Festival with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under the direction of Gabor Tacácz at the Grand Théâtre de Provence.

What is your view of your profession today ?
A composer imagined colors that he had to simplify by symbols in black and white on a sheet of paper. In order to get closer to this ideal, the musician of today must understand the historical, social and political context, the customs of the time, the organology and the capacities that the instruments had but also the subtleties that each language adds to the musical prosody. To all this research is added an individual sensitivity which tints every interpretation and makes it unique, and an almost religious work of perfection and research. Moreover, unlike an engineer or a doctor who could theoretically learn his trade and perfect his knowledge with the help only of a manual or of all the written knowledge, the musician's trade requires a direct transmission and is based on an uninterrupted tradition since centuries. In this, the modern musician is a bridge between the human being of yesterday and today, the ephemeral fruit of his work is a universal and timeless testimony to times and human culture.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
I would like to continue to develop my activity as a soloist and chamber musician and create musical events in Cuba in order to multiply the exchanges between our two countries and give the same chances that I had to talented young people.

Interview conducted in 2022
Photography credit: Julie Glassberg