November 17, 2017 – Piano Master Class and Concert at the Rosita Segovia Theatre at Conchita Espinosa Conservatory of the Arts in collaboration with CCEMiami.
October 23-27, 2014 – Piano and Choir Master Classes at Conchita Espinosa Conservatory of the Arts, Piano Concert at Conchita Espinosa Conservatory of the Arts in collaboration with CCEMiami.
Josu Okiñena (b. San Sebastián, 1971) divides his professional life between teaching and performing, taking a multidisciplinary and scientific approach to all areas of his career. He is currently Research Coordinator at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country, and has been awarded a doctorate by the University of Valladolid.
Having won first prizes at the San Sebastián Conservatory for both piano and chamber music, he went on to study with Félix Lavilla. He also won the principal end-of-course prize at the Madrid Conservatory, and in Santiago de Compostela was presented with the Andrés Segovia and José Miguel Ruiz Morales prize for performance of Spanish music.
He continued his studies at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, working with Oxana Yablonskaya, and in London, where he took part in masterclasses given by such esteemed musicians as Krystian Zimerman, Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Ivo Pogorelich. He also took regular classes over a period of five years with Maria Curcio, herself a pupil of the legendary pianist Artur Schnabel. Having assimilated all these influences and combined them so as to create his own highly personal style, now admired in concert halls the world over, Josu Okiñena returned to San Sebastián and became involved in the establishment of Musikene in 2001, taking on a teaching role there.He has also taught postgraduate courses at various universities in Spain, Argentina, Cuba and Bolivia, as well as taking part in music research seminars at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent.Josu Okiñena has appeared at some of the world’s most prestigious venues and taken part in a number of international festivals, performing with renowned orchestras. In 2006, as part of his commitment to contemporary music – particularly that of his compatriots – he gave the premiere of Ignacio Tellería’s Piano Concerto with the Basque National Orchestra.He has made several albums, notably the complete works for voice and piano by Félix Lavilla, recorded with Cecilia Lavilla Berganza, and the complete works for voice and piano of Padre Donostia, recorded with Almudena Ortega.
In March 2011 he was awarded the research prize of the Universidad del País Vasco and the Orfeón Donostiarra for his thesis on Padre Donostia entitled “Autopoietic communication, a basis for musical performance, with reference to the works for voice and piano of José Antonio Donostia”.Josu Okiñena has played concerts and has given scientific lectures at the University of Florida, University of Warsaw and has participated in the International Congress of Papyrology in Warsaw among others, and he has played in several international festivals.
