JUAN JOSÉ CHUQUISENGO
We are before one of the most profound pianists of this age, one who has crystallized by means the spiritual experience of music…the world has been waiting for this kind of pianist..'' Stuttgarter Zeitung
Awarded from the ‘Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’, winner of the Teresa Carreño international Piano Competition and with the exclusive firm of SONY Classical Juan Jose Chuquisengo as one of the leading Latin American pianists. His recording “Transcendent Journey” (2009) was distinguished as one of ‘the label’s best 100 classic CDs ever.
Born in Perú Juan José Chuquisengo learned music without teacher, playing everything by ear, later on he started studies at the Conservatory. After the decision to become a musician he went to Europe, perfecting his studies in Germany and Italy. Sergiu Celibidache became his principal teacher and mentor, let him devote himself to the intense study of the musical phenomenon – as consequence of which he left the stage for more than 7 years. Celibidache wrote later about Chuquisengo: “he is an outstanding pianist who does not place himself above music but instead strives to achieve an authentic correspondence between the sonorous dimension and man…”
After this period he returned to the performance stage. With the Award by the Kennedy Center he relocated to live in New York for some years. From that time on he divides his activity between Europe, North and South America and Japan giving concerts and recitals in the most prestigious halls such as Berlin Philharmony, Kennedy Center at Washington, Bunkio Hall Tokyo, Musikhalle Hamburg, Sibelius Saal at Helsinky, Brahms Saal Vienna, Salle Gaveau in Paris, St. John's Smith Square (London), Palazzo Sforza (Milan), Pushkin Hall (Moscow), Herkulessaal (Munich), Liszt Academy (Budapest),Festival Estate Romano in Rome, etc.
As teacher he offered and master classes and Seminaries of Phenomenology at Universities and Colleges of Music, lately at the Orchestra Academy of the Daniel Barenboim Foundation in Sevilla. In order to continue a living artistic evolution, he studied composition, orchestral conducting and explored the art of improvisation, working on several styles of World Music.
As composer Juan José Chuquisengo writes music for chamber ensembles and for orchestras. His composition Guerrero Andino (2017) for symphony orchestra has been premiered 2017 during a tour through Chile, Argentina and Brasil by the YOA Orchestra of the Americas under Carlos Miguel Prieto.
Immensely important it is for him to share music with his less privileged Peruvian compatriots, especially with children. Since 2011 he regularly travels to the Peruvian Andes to perform concerts at the remote villages around Cusco –who mostly had not even seen a piano before. During those Travesías musicales (musical Journeys) he performs up to 4 concerts daily, at an altitude of 4.000 meters, travelling hundreds of kilometres. In 2018 he gave his 120st Travesía-concert.
Besides music Chuquisengo has embarked upon studies of Philosophy and Art and has practiced diverse Martial Arts for more than 25 years. He holds black belt in Karate-do and is regular Teacher of Qi Gong, Tai Ji and Kung Fu, he practices Kendo and Chinese Archery. Seeming a completely different area, it is the physical-mental exigence that holds strong analogies to the musical work. That way his artistic work is inspired by diverse sources who all have all in common the transcendent dimension of music; “music as spiritual state”.