User:StevenBeunder/sandbox: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

 

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== Concert pianist ==

== Concert pianist ==

Assimilating the influences of the renowned pianists he studied with, resulted in a highly personal style that Okiñena marks as concert pianist. <ref name=”:2″ /> From the early 2000s Okiñena started playing as a professional concert pianist in venues all over the world. Okiñena has performed in the famous [[Teatro Colón]] in Buenos Aires <ref>{{cite web|access-date=2026-02-01 |language=es-AR |title=Josu Okiñena |url=https://teatrocolon.org.ar/artista/josu-okinena/ |work=Teatro Colón}}<!– auto-translated from Dutch by Module:CS1 translator –></ref> and participated in prestigious international festivals and collaborated with renowned orchestras <ref name=”:2″ />. In 2006, due to his commitment to contemporary music and in particular to the composers of his homeland, he premiered Ignacio Tellería’s ‘Concert for piano and orchestra’ with the [[Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa|Euskadi Symphony Orchestra]]. <ref name=”:0″ />

Assimilating the influences of the renowned pianists he studied with, resulted in a highly personal style that Okiñena marks as concert pianist. <ref name=”:2″ /> From the early 2000s Okiñena started playing as a professional concert pianist in venues all over the world. Okiñena has performed in the famous [[Teatro Colón]] in Buenos Aires <ref>{{cite web|access-date=2026-02-01 |language=es-AR |title=Josu Okiñena |url=https://teatrocolon.org.ar/artista/josu-okinena/ |work=Teatro Colón}}<!– auto-translated from Dutch by Module:CS1 translator –></ref> and participated in prestigious international festivals and collaborated with renowned orchestras <ref name=”:2″ />. In 2006, due to his commitment to contemporary music and in particular to the composers of his homeland, he premiered Ignacio Tellería’s ‘Concert for piano and orchestra’ with the [[Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa|Euskadi Symphony Orchestra]]. <ref name=”:0″ />

In 2014 Okiñena toured throughout Spain and the United States with piano compositions of Aita Donostia, with performances in New York, Reno, Chicago and Miami. Okiñena has been described during one of these concerts in Sevilla, as “a pianist with a great capacity for poetic evocation through a delicate touch and a refined sense of colour, complemented by the great lyricism of his phrasing and his mastery of rubato”. <ref>{{cite web|access-date=2026-02-01 |date=2014-05-29 |first=Andrés Moreno |language=es |last=Mengíbar |title=La música sublimada de un fraile |url=https://www.diariodesevilla.es/ocio/musica-sublimada-fraile_0_811419121.html |work=Diario de Sevilla}}<!– auto-translated from Dutch by Module:CS1 translator –></ref>

In 2014 Okiñena toured throughout Spain and the United States with piano compositions of Aita Donostia, with performances in New York, Reno, Chicago and Miami. Okiñena has been described during one of these concerts in Sevilla, as “a pianist with a great capacity for poetic evocation through a delicate touch and a refined sense of colour, complemented by the great lyricism of his phrasing and his mastery of rubato”. <ref>{{cite web|access-date=2026-02-01 |date=2014-05-29 |first=Andrés Moreno |language=es |last=Mengíbar |title=La música sublimada de un fraile |url=https://www.diariodesevilla.es/ocio/musica-sublimada-fraile_0_811419121.html |work=Diario de Sevilla}}<!– auto-translated from Dutch by Module:CS1 translator –></ref>

Josu Okiñena (Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain 15 May 1971) is a concert pianist, researcher and professor of music.

Josu Okiñena studied music in his hometown of Donostia-San Sebastian in the Basque Country, at the San Sebastián Municipal Conservatory of Music, where he won the first prize in piano and chamber music at the age of 16. He continued his studies with the Spanish pianist and composer Félix Lavilla, and graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music Madrid in 1992, winning the end-of-degree honours prize. One year later, Okiñena  won the Andrés Segovia and José Miguel Ruiz Morales prize for the performance of Spanish music in Santiago de Compostela.^[1]

Okiñena moved in 1994 to New York to study at Julliard School of Music with the pianist Oxana Yablonskaya. In the following year he continued his studies in London where he received master classes from classical concert pianists of the stature of Krystian Zimmerman, Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Ivo Pogorelich. From 1995 to 1999 Okiñena studied with Maria Curcio, a pupil of the legendary pianist Arthur Schnabel. ^{[2] [3]}

In 2001 Okiñena returned to Donostia-San Sebastian to support the creation of the Superior Music Conservatory of Basque Autonomous Community, Musikene, with his pedagogical work and where he has remained active as a music teacher ever since.  Over the last 25 years, Okiñena taught also postgraduate courses at different universities in Spain, Argentina, Chile, Cuba and Bolivia and has participated in seminars dedicated to musical research at the University of Florida, the University of Warsaw and the CUNY (City University of New York). ^[4]

Assimilating the influences of the renowned pianists he studied with, resulted in a highly personal style that Okiñena marks as a concert pianist. ^[4] From the early 2000s Okiñena started playing as a professional concert pianist in venues all over the world. Okiñena has performed in the famous Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires ^[5] and participated in prestigious international festivals and collaborated with renowned orchestras ^[4]. In 2006, due to his commitment to contemporary music and in particular to the composers of his homeland, he premiered Ignacio Tellería’s ‘Concert for piano and orchestra’ with the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra. ^[1]

In 2014 Okiñena toured throughout Spain and the United States with piano compositions of Aita Donostia, with performances in New York, Reno, Chicago and Miami. Okiñena has been described during one of these concerts in Sevilla, as “a pianist with a great capacity for poetic evocation through a delicate touch and a refined sense of colour, complemented by the great lyricism of his phrasing and his mastery of rubato”. ^[6]

At the end of 2017 Okiñena went on an international tour of Europe, Asia, the United States of America, the Southern Cone of Latin America, taking him in July 2018 to Carnegie Hall in New York, and to other major venues in cities such as Tokyo, Santiago de Chile, Montevideo and Rome, among others. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

In 2009 Okiñena  got his PHD in music interpretation from the University of Valladolid. ^[10] Besides his work as a concert pianist and music professor, he devotes his professional activity to research and music interpretation, basing it as a scientific activity from a transdisciplinary approach. ^[11]

In March 2011, Okiñena received the research award from the University of the Basque Country and the Orfeón Donostiarra for his work on Padre Donostia (in Basque, Aita Donostia)  entitled La comunicación autopoiética, fundament for musical interpretation: his study in the works for voice and piano by Aita Donostia. ^[2] Why the work on Aita Donostia has become so important to him, Okiñena explains in an interview in 2018: “Discovering one of the most important composers of his time and placing him in international catalogues so that he can be discovered by a wider audience. Recording Aita Donostia´s compositions with a multinational like Sony Classical allows for unprecedented dissemination of his legacy, and this is what will truly ensure that his music lives on”. ^[12]

In January 2018, Okiñena published his essay La interpretación musical. Fundamentos científicos para su desarrollo , a pioneering publication in Spain and one of the first in Europe. In this book he bases the artistic process as a scientific activity on the contributions of quantum physics. ^[13] In 2022, he published a new essay that offers a scientific foundation for the processes underlying a musical performer’s activity: ‘Musical interpretation as an artistic and scientific process. Two complementary dimensions’ (Deusto Publications, 2022). ^[14]

In addition to his other activities, he has recently been preparing critical editions of previously unpublished Basque musical compositions, notably including symphonic works such as Akelarre by Pascual Aldave and La Vie Profonde by Aita Donostia, among many others. ^[15]

In the early 2000s Okiñena published his first music recordings: a series of CD’s he recorded for voice and piano with the Spanish soprano Almudena Ortega. ^[16] Other early recordings include the complete works for voice and piano by Félix Lavilla, together with the Spanish soprano Cecilia Lavilla Berganza. ^[17]

In 2013 Okiñena recorded a CD for Sony Classical with the piano compositions of Aita Donostia, being described by the specialised critics as the revelation pianist of the year and placing him among the ten best albums of 2014. ^[18] In 2015 he also recorded a selection of piano works by Erik Satie for Sony Classical, with a positive review from music critic Juan Ángel Vela del Campo.^[19] In 2018 he published the CD entitled Xuxurlak, whispers, with Sony Classical, with which he recovered masterpieces of the Basque musical heritage. ^[20]

In 2020 he published his CD Les introuvables, compiling some of the compositions of Franz Liszt‘s last period, which was received with great enthusiasm by critics and specialised centres, such as the Ferenc Liszt Research Center in Budapest. ^[21]

In 2021 he compiled on his CD Aradak, echoes, works by Basque and Navarrese composers, mainly composed in America and France, recovering a previously unpublished musical heritage. ^{[22] [23]}

With his company OE Oficina, Okiñena continues the promotion of Basque music from multiple perspectives: publishing music scores, producing audio and video recordings, and organize festivals and concerts featuring prominent performers from the international artistic scene.

In 2019 Okiñena coordinated and edited History of Basque Music, at the University of Reno, Nevada, in the United States of America. This is the first publication in English to compile a synthesis of the history of Basque music. ^[24]

The documentary series Musikaz, presented by Okiñena and produced by OE Oficina, premiered in 2023. The series was launched to coincide with the launch of PRIMERAN, the new streaming platform of the Basque Public Broadcaster (EITB), which went live in September 2023. In this six-part series, Okiñena takes viewers on a musical journey to rediscover the hidden treasures of Basque composers (XXX).

In honour for his decades long work in researching and promoting the Basque musical heritage in general and of Aita Donostia in particular, Okiñena became in 2023 a full member of the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País, an organisation created in the 18th century to promote development, science and culture of the Basque country. ^[25]

• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Ortega, A. (soprano). (2002). Obras para canto y piano. IZ. SS-1025/02.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Ortega, A. (soprano). (2003). Obras para canto y piano II. IZ. SS-1103/03.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Ortega, A. (soprano). (2004). Música para voz y piano III. NB. M-11466-2005
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Ortega, A. (soprano). (2005). Música para voz y piano IV. NB. M-11466-2005
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Ortega, A. (soprano). (2006). Música para voz y piano V. HL. SS-134-2007.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Suma, R. (violoncello). (2006). Johannes Brahms: cello & piano sonatas. NB. M-28-322-2006
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Lavilla, C. (soprano). (2008). Félix Lavilla canciones. Geaster S.L. D.L.HU-251/2009
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Ortega, A. (soprano). (2012). Aita Donostia: Integral de la obra para voz y piano. Warner Music.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist). (2013). Aita Donostia. Piano music. Sony Classical.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist). (2015). Erik Satie. Silence. Sony Classical.
• Okiñena, J. (2018). Xuxurlak. Sony Classical.
• Okiñena, J. (Pianist) (2018). ANGEL ILLARRAMENDI. Zuzenean. Karonte.
• Munguía, G. (Tenor) and Okiñena, J. (pianist). (2019). Lexía. Sony Classical.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist). (2020). Les introuvables. F. Liszt. Sony Classical.
• Munguía, G. (Tenor) and Okiñena, J. (pianist). (2020). Gabon kantak. Ondare Music
• Okiñena, J. (pianist). (2021). Aradak. Ondare Music.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Gourdjia, L. (violinist). (2021). Xarmak.
• Okiñena, J. (pianist) and Uskola, M. (contratenor). (2021). Aita Donostia Songs.
• Kea Ahots Taldea (Coro) and Azurza, E. (director) and Okiñena, J. (pianists) and Polo, A. (violoncello). (2021). Ke Orbelak.

• Okiñena, J. (2009). La comunicación autopoiética fundamento para la interpretación musical: su estudio en la obra para voz y piano de José Antonio Donosita. Tesis doctoral. Universidad de Valladolid.
• Okiñena, J. (2018). La interpretación musical. Fundamentos científicos para su desarrollo. Madrid: Oe Oficina Editorial. Prologue written by Teresa Berganza.
• Okiñena, J. (2019). The history of Basque music. Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studie Press.
• Okiñena, J (2022). La interpretación musical como proceso artístico y científico: dos dimensiones complementarias. Bilbao: Deusto.

• Okiñena, J. (2013). Gerónimo Giménez. Intermedio de La boda de Luis Alonso. (Partitura). Madrid: Unión Musical Ediciones S.L.
• Okiñena, J. (2015). Félix Lavilla. Canciones para violonchelo y piano. (Partitura). Madrid: Unión Musical Ediciones S. L.
• Okiñena, J. (2018). Aita Donostia. Andante doloroso. (Partitura). Madrid: Oe Oficina Editorial.

• Okiñena, J. (2014). La experimentación del intérprete. L’Esmuc Digital. Revista de L’Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, 25.