Monday, February 27, 2023
7:00 p.m.
1900 Building, 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, Kansas 66205

Pianist Claudio Martinez Mehner will create a rare opportunity for classical music lovers in Kansas City on Monday, February 27, 2023, at the 1900 Building.

We are excited to offer this virtuoso performance to the International Center for Music and the Kansas City fine arts community. We look forward to welcoming Maestro Mehner, one of those most rare performers who is capable of bringing amazing works to life.

Born in Germany in 1970, Claudio Martinez Mehner began his music studies at an early age at the “Real Conservatorio Superior de Madrid” in Madrid with Amparo Fuster, Pedro Lerma and Joaquín Soriano. In addition to his piano studies, he participated in the Spanish National Youth Orchestra as a violist and in the Chamber Orchestra of the German School as a violinist, violist and harpsichord player. He finished his bachelor degree in 1989.

He continued his studies at the “Tchaikovsky-Conservatory” in Moscow and the “Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía” in Madrid with Prof. Dmitri Bashkirov, afterwards at the the “Hochschule für Musik” in Freiburg, Germany (Master of Performance, finished 1994), the “Fondazione per il Pianoforte” in Como, Italy; and the “Peabody Conservatory” in Baltimore, US (Artist degree studies) with Vitalij Margulis and Leon Fleisher. In addition, he participated in masterclasses given by Murray Perahia, Fou Ts’ong, Alexis Weissenberg, Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Mstislav Rostropovich and György Kurtág, among many others. During almost a decade he has received invaluable advice by Prof. Ferenc Rados.

At a young age, Claudio Martínez Mehner won first prize with special mention in the German competition “Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert”. He was a finalist in the International Piano Competition “Paloma O’Shea” in Santander (1990), Spain, and won first prizes in the international competitions “Pilar Bayona” in Zaragoza, Spain (1992), “Fondation Chimay” in Belgium (1993), and “Dino Ciani” in Milano, Italy (1993).

As a soloist he performed in most major cities in Europe, United States, Russia, Central America, Japan and Korea, with orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, Filarmónica of the Teatro Alla Scala, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic, Italian Swiss Radio Orchestra, Norddeutsche Rundfunk, Filarmonia Hungarica and most of the major Spanish orchestras. Claudio Martínez-Mehner is an avid chamber music player and has performed with many ensembles in Europe and Asia.

Presently he is piano professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany. He teaches masterclasses in Europe, Asia and the U.S.