Fundación Jesús Serra awards Jonathan Mamora the First Prize in the 68th edition of the Maria Canals International Music Competition

"The American pianist won the top prize of €25,000 in the final of the renowned international music competition. "

27-year-old American pianist Jonathan Mamora is the freshly-crowned winner of the First Fundación Jesús Serra Prize in the 68th edition of the Maria Canals International Music Competition. In the final held at Palau de la Música Catalana he won over Ukrainian pianist Roman Lopatynsky and Russian pianist Valentin Malinin by interpreting Serguéi Rachmaninov's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3. 

The First Prize is endowed with €25,000. The award also offers the possibility of playing a minimum of five concerts in an established season with five symphony orchestras in Spain.   

The final was one of the most memorable in recent editions, as the three finalists, who were accompanied during their performance by the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia (JONC), directed by Manel Valdieso, demonstrated an extraordinary high level, leaving the audience perplexed and complicating the decision of the competition's jury.  

The international jury consisted of Japanese pianist Yukiko Akagi; the Italian Vincenzo Balzani; Taiwanese pianist Hung-Kuan Chen; the Georgian Nina Kereselidze; Russian-American pianist Pavel Nersessian; the Polish Ewa Osinska; Latvian pianist Vestard Šimkus, winner of the First Fundación Jesús Serra Prize in 2009; and pianist Alba Ventura from Barcelona. Uruguayan pianist Carlos Cebro presided the jury. 

This prize awarded by Fundación Jesús Serra, of Grupo Catalana Occidente, falls within the scope of its support to culture and highlights the great opportunity provided to the winner in terms of visibility to consolidate his career as a result of the five concerts played in Spain. Within the framework of collaboration with the Maria Canals Competition, we also find the social project ¡Me Toca!, through which the insurance group's foundation grants scholarships to 129 students aged between 6 and 10 with limited economic resources for music and piano studies, thus preserving the principle of equal opportunities. Your city is full of pianos is also a popular event, in which 10 grand pianos are made available to all people in the most iconic and bustling places in Spanish cities. This is intended to break the barriers with this instrument and bring the universal practice of music closer to all audiences.
 

Profile of Jonathan Mamora 

Jonathan Mamora has performed throughout the world, and he is a prize-winner of numerous international competitions, recently winning first prize in the Dallas International Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and “Sviatoslav Richter” International Piano Competition.

He has received lessons from famous pianists such as Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Levin, Alexander Kobrin, Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch. And he has recently debuted at the Carnegie Hall in the Weill Recital Hall in New York, NY.