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Sira Hernández

Pianist and composer

Sira Hernández, born in Barcelona, debuted at the age of 16 in the auditorium of the G. Verdi Conservatory in Turin (Italy). She would carry out her musical studies at the same conservatory, under the direction of the renowned pianist Remo Remoli, a disciple of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Felice Quaranta, at that time director of the conservatory, in addition to being a renowned composer and pianist.

After finishing her studies in Turin, She returned to Barcelona where she perfected her piano studies at the Marshall Academy, receiving classes from the great pianist Alicia de Larrocha. Between the years 1993-1994 she studied counterpoint and fugue and composition with Manuel Oltra, thus expanding the studies she began with Felice Quaranta in Turin, to then begin her improvisation studies with the prestigious Emilio Molina, professor at the Higher School of Music of Catalonia. (ESMUC) and at the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music.

She has participated, as a performer and composer, in different cycles of concerts and international festivals, including the Peralada Festival, Santa Florentina Festival, Palau de la Música Catalana, the Barcelona Auditorium or in art centers such as Fundación La Caixa de Catalunya, La Pedrera in Barcelona, Arts Santa Mònica Cultural Center in Barcelona, Conde Duque Cultural Center in Madrid, Centro Centro Cibeles, Cycle Nights in the Gardens of the Real Alcázar in Seville and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona among others.

In the recording field, she has received exceptional reviews for her recordings of composers such as D. Scarlatti, J. S. Bach, F. Chopin, I. Albéniz or M. Oltra and her recordings of the Música Callada by F. Mompou and Father Antonio Soler , have been acclaimed by specialized music critics. Her recordings and recitals are regularly heard on the main national and international radio networks.

In addition to her activity as a performer, Sira Hernández has collaborated and developed different artistic projects as a composer, along with dancers, actors, poets and plastic artists, offering recitals and shows where music enters into dialogue with other arts.

“Iniciación a la Sombra”, inspired by the verses of Ángel Crespo, her close collaboration with Pablo Arán, first dancer in Pina Bausch's company Wüpperthal Tanztheater, or her projects with the plastic artist Stella Rahola or the actor Manuel Galiana, among others, led Sira Hernandez to delve deeper into the field of composition which led her to, in 2017, at the Teatre Akademia in Barcelona, premiere her own music on the piano in the show L'altra voce, by the Italian director and choreographer Moreno Bernardi , inspired by the verses of the great Italian poet Alda Merini.

From this moment on, her activity as a composer intensifies and in 2019 she premieres “Fantasy for piano”, this time commissioned by the Italian artist Sara Conforti for her performance at the Gli Acrobati gallery in Turin. In June 2019 she premieres “Don't forget about that”, in memory of the Italian writer Primo Levi, to celebrate the Centennial of his birth, with the collaboration of the Centro Studi Primo Levi in Turin (Italy).

As a composer, Sira Hernández obtains an enormous reputation with her monographic works for Naxos “Initiation to the Shadow” and for Sony Classical “Tre Impressioni, sulla Divina commedia”. While with “Initiation to the Shadow” Sira Hernández has an enormous impact worldwide, becoming Naxos' fifth best-selling CD in the month of May 2020, 'Three Impressions of the Divine Comedy', dedicated to Dante in the year of the commemorations of the 700th anniversary of his death, premieres on March 25 at the National Library of Spain, with the concert being broadcast through the channels of the National Library and Dante Day.

 

Recently, Sira Hernández has offered recitals at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts San Fernando in Madrid, she has performed at the El Born Museum, on the occasion of the days dedicated to the Italian writer Primo Levi, offering two recitals with her work composed in memory of writer and inspired by his texts. The recital was accompanied by the dramatized reading of some extracts from his books, by actors Francesc Orella and Cristina Gordana, directed by Judith Pujol and projected photos by Magda Puig. She has also performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ibiza and participated in the closing of the exhibition on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy organized by the FUNDOS foundation and at the Josep Carreras Auditorium in Vila-Seca (Tarragona), offered at the month of November 2022 with its program “Tre Impressioni sulla Divina Commedia”.

In September 2022, the pianist and composer is awarded at the prestigious Global Music Awards for 'Tre Impressioni Sulla Divina Commedia', Sira Hernández has obtained three gold medals in the specialties of Contemporary Classical, Instrumentalist, and Creativity/Originality and a fourth medal, silver for the promotional video of her work "Tre Impressioni Sulla Divina Commedia" edited on Sony Classical.

Her performances have taken her to Italy, Belgium and the rest of Spain this past year. She has recently premiered her works dedicated to Picasso and Guernica in the Basque Country, León and in the Barcelona Auditorium. She has also premiered at the Ibiza International Piano Festival her new works dedicated, among others, to Ukraine, as a plea for peace and hope for a better future for all humanity.

Her work Hymn is the commission that the prestigious International Piano Prize, Maria Canals, has asked of her for the year 2024 and that the pianists of the competition will perform.

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Sira Hernández

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