ABOUT
Picture by Oliver Röckle
Magdalena Cerezo is a pianist and performer specialised in contemporary music. A central component of her practice as an artist is the research and exploration of the piano's implementation in the 21st Century, with the aim of creating new ways of integrating the instrument with both performance and multimedia art. Within this framework, she commissions new compositions and curates diverse projects, which call into question the inherent eurocentristic vision of piano culture.
During her career, Magdalena has collaborated with composers such as Bernhard Lang, Wolfgang Rihm, Beat Furrer, Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann, Rebecca Saunders, Mark Andre, Rolf Riehm, Johannes Kreidler, Adriana Hölszky, and Brian Ferneyhough, and has premiered works by Peter Ablinger, Mauricio Sotelo, Fabián Panisello, Benjamin Scheuer, Eliav Kohl, and Sara Glojnarić, among others.
Furthemore, she is an honorific alumni member of Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, and has played with Ulysses Ensemble, Karlsruhe Opera Theater's Orchestra, Plural Ensemble (Madrid), Ensemble Courage Dresden, and New Music Forum Ensemble Ljubljana. Magdalena is a founding member of duo LAB51 and trio f:t, as well as the pianist of Arxis Ensemble.
Recently, she has performed at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), where she gave a lecture concert on Xenakis' piano music alongside musicologist Marina Hervás and visual artist Marta Verde, University of Music Karlsruhe, where she played Mantra by Stockhausen alongside Prof. Markus Stange, RESIS Festival (A Coruña), with both LAB51 and Arxis Ensemble under the baton of Beat Furrer, Auditorio Sony (Madrid), featuring world premieres of Fabián Panisello's composition studio alongside Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Royaumont Foundation, and Théâtre de l'Alliance Française (Paris), as part of the show Générations France Musique from Radio France (LAB51). Currently, Magdalena is an artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (together with soprano Johanna Vargas), and has recently been awarded a stipend from Kunstiftung Baden-Württemberg.
During the season 2019-20, she received a support grant from Landeshaupstadt Stuttgart and Musik der Jahrhunderte for the first part of her long term project [Ex_Piano_Revisited_Library], including two video productions and a concert at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, within the series Südseite Nachts. Since 2018, she maintains a close artistic relationship with german composer Rolf Riehm, which translates into multiple presentations and performances of his piano works in Frankfurt, München, Darmstadt, Stuttgart, Dresden, and Ljubljana. In recent years, she has earned accolades such as the first prize of the John Cage Interpretation Award as a pianist of duo LAB51, the first prize of the Kulturfonds Baden Competition for the interpretation of Wolfgang Rihm's music, and a full scholarship from Ulysses Network to participate at the Call for Young Performers curated by Divertimento Ensemble Milano. In 2015, she was personally selected by Helmut Lachenmann to interpret his piano work Serynade at ZeitGenuss Festival in Karlsruhe.
Magdalena has performed in venues such as Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Kölner Philharmonie, Berliner Philharmonie, Radialsystem V, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Galvin Hall, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall or Centre Pompidou Paris, and has taken part at festivals such as Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Time of Music, Impuls, ManiFeste, Donaueschinger Musiktage, NUNC!3 (Northwestern University Chicago), Der Sommer in Stuttgart, RESIS, Südseite Nachts, and Mixtur Barcelona, among others.
Her performances have been broadcasted by RTVE, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Bremen, HR, SWR, Radio France, and Digital Concert Hall. During the 2018-19 season, she was correspondant in Germany for the contemporary music radio broadcast Música viva (Spanish National Radio). Recent CD recordings featuring works by Rebecca Saunders and Wolfgang Rihm were released by the label Naxos-Capriccio in April 2021.
After graduating with honors from the University of Music Salamanca, under the guidance of professors such as Sophia Hase, Eduardo Ponce and Alberto Rosado, Magdalena moved to Germany, where she is currently based. Between 2011-2015, she obtained two masters degrees in classical piano and chamber music at the University of Music Karlsruhe, under professors Kalle Randalu and Markus Stange. From 2016 onwards, she continued her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart under Prof. Nicolas Hodges, where she finished a third master's degree in contemporary music in 2018, and a Concert Soloist Degree in 2021.
Since 2018, she works as an adjunct instructor for Contemporary Voice Training/Contemporary Lied and Performance at the University of Music in Karlsruhe.
Upcoming engagements include a solo recital at Academia de Bellas Artes de A Coruña, featuring works by Rebecca Saunders and Alberto Posadas, as well as several projects with trio f:t, such as concert performances at THE PRESENT Art Festival (Wuppertal) and Alte Feuerwache Köln, or the audiovisual production of “m-her two severed hands” for piano six hands by NYC-based composer George Katehis at the Musikbrauerei’s Säulenhalle in Berlin, made possible by Goethe Institut's Virtual Partner Residency program.
"Capable of a delicate and transparent pianism, as well as strenght and an overwhelming force"
"One of the best spanish pianists for contemporary repertoire"
mundoclasico, Paco Yáñez 2019/2020