Clara Rodriguez - Piano

The Venezuelan virtuoso pianist Clara Rodriguez has built an enviable international reputation for her innovative programme planning, juxtaposing standard repertoire with works by South American composers and has commissioned, premiered and is the dedicatee of over thirty works. Her playing stands out for its sheer beauty of tone, high expressiveness, sensitivity considerable digital clarity combined with stylistic acumen.

At sixteen she was in her eighth year at the Conservatorio Juan José Landaeta of Caracas when she took part in a national competition judged by Michael Gough Matthews and Barbara Boissard, the then directors of both the Royal College of Music’s Senior and Junior Departments. She was awarded the Teresa Carreño Scholarship, and this enabled her to come to London to study at the Royal College of Music with Phyllis Sellick where she was the recipient of many prizes and awards including the Scarlatti Prize, the Mozart Prize, and the Percy Buck Award, as a finalist in the Chappell Prize. With the Royal College of Music orchestras, she performed concertos by Mozart, De Falla, Ravel and Gershwin. In Caracas, at seventeen, Clara made her debut playing Mozart's Piano Concerto K595 with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra under the baton of José Antonio Abreu.

Pianist Guiomar Narváez (Venezuela) was Clara Rodriguez's first piano teacher in Caracas. She also received tuition from Paul Badura-Skoda (Austria), Niel Immelman (U.K.), Irina Zaritskaya (Russia) and Regina Smendzianka (Poland). Clara’s career as a solo pianist has taken her to perform to great acclaim in most European countries, Venezuela, the United States, India, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia.

In London, Clara is a popular performer who regularly plays in recitals and as soloist with orchestra in the most prestigious halls including the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. James’s Piccadilly, St John’s Smith Square, Leighton House, Bolívar Hall. She is regularly invited to play concertos with the worldwide acclaimed Simón Bolívar Orchestra as well as with other El Sistema Orchestras, one of those memorable dates was her participation in the Grandes Virtuosos del Piano Festival where she played the Reynaldo Hahn Piano Concerto alongside other participants that included Paul Badura-Skoda and Chick Corea. Clara regularly plays recitals at Arundells, the home of the late Sir Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister.

Clara Rodriguez is often interviewed by the BBC and her CDs constantly feature on the BBC Radio stations and in networks world-wide. She has recorded six solo albums for Nimbus Records and her latest release of works by Chopin is found on the Ulysses Arts label. She is a most appreciated pedagogue; her students have been awarded numerous scholarships to the most prestigious universities and music colleges and a great number of them are pursuing careers as piano performers and teachers. They have been successful in public concerts at the Wigmore Hall, the Elgar Room of the Albert Hall and venues all over the U.K. She teaches at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music. In 2015 Clara Rodriguez was awarded the "Classical Music Act" LUKAS Prize, has been made an honorary member of the Chelsea Arts Club and has been named "Woman of the Year" by the main newspapers and magazines of Venezuela. She is an editor with published scores on Spartan Press, Nimbus Editions, and the ABRSM.

Some of the artists and orchestras Clara has performed in concerts with include clarinettist and conductor Michael Collins, violinist concertmaster of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Stephen Bryant, guitarists Alirio Díaz and Miguel Delgado-Estévez, El Cuarteto ensemble, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orquesta Filarmónica Nacional de Venezuela, Orquesta Municipal de Caracas, Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo, Orquesta Sinfónica Francisco de Miranda, Orquesta Sinfónica Juan José Landaeta, London Phoenix Orchestra, Orquesta de Aragua, conductors Jordi Mora, Marc Dooley, Levon Parikian, Christopher Adey, Eduardo Rahn, Teresa Hernández, Carlos Riazuelo, Alfredo Rugeles, Rodolfo Saglimbeni, Luis Miguel González-Fuentes, Régulo Stabilito, Telésforo Naranjo and Jesús Uzcátegui.

To find out more about Clara, including her recordings and future performances, visit her website.