Performed by Luis Parés and Katia Novell-Leruth
Piano and violin recital at the Bolívar Hall
November 27, 2003
Bolívar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL
Tel. 020 7388 57 88
7:30 pm
Free Admission

The Venezuelan pianist Luis Parés and the Spanish violinist Katia Novell-Leruth will play a varied programme that includes music by Fauré, Stravinsky, Plaza, Piazzola, De Falla and Ravel.

Luis Parés is an undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music, studying piano with Gordon Fergus-Thompson. He holds a scholarship supported by an Else & Leonard Cross Memorial Award. He started his musical studies at the age of 9 with Juan Antúnez. He has also studied with Sergio Cimarosti and the Trio di Trieste at the United World College of the Adriatic (Duino, Italy) and with Igor Lavrov in Caracas.

He has been awarded the Order "José Felix Ribas" in its third class (Venezuela, 1997), special mention at the Stefano Marizza Piano Competition (Italy, 1998) and first prize at the Silvia Eisenstein National Piano Competition (Caracas, Venezuela, 2001). Chamber Music prizes include the RCM Kathleen Turner Piano Chamber Music Prize (2003) and the RCM Wind Ensemble Competition (2003), both as a member of the Aquilon Trio. He also won the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Gwyneth George Prize (2003) with fellow students of the RCM and recently, the XIV Paper de Musica Competition in Catalonia, Spain. He has also performed in masterclasses including those by Christian Blackshaw (RCM), Alberto Portugheis (Steinway Hall), Martin Lovett (Steinway Hall) and Stephen Kovacevich (Dartington International Summer School).

Luis is an active solo and chamber music recitalist and has performed in Venezuela, Italy, England and Spain. He has also played in Venezuela with the Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo, concertos by Rachmaninov and Schumann. Forthcoming engagements include recitals in London at St Martin-in-the-Fields and St James's Piccadilly, a concert tour in Spain with violinist Katia Novell-Leruth and a concerto performance with the Orquesta Sinfónica Municipal de Caracas in Venezuela in 2004.

Katia Novell-Leruth was born in Barcelona (Spain) in 1979, Katia received her first violin lessons at the age of five in Hospitalet de l'Infant. From eight to seventeen, she studied at the Professional Conservatory of Vila-Seca with Evelio Tieles until she was admitted to the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin where she studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and obtained the Diplom-Vorprufung (First Class). In 1999 she went back to Spain to study with Evgeni Gratch and graduated (First Class) at the Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona.

Since 2000, she has studied at the Royal College of Music with Felix Andrievsky and Itzhak Rashkovsky and graduated with First Class in 2002. Currently she is studying with Andrij Viytovych as Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Solo Performance. She has received scholarships by the Spanish and Catalan Governments as well as the Antonio Brosa Award.

Among other prizes she was awarded in 2002 First Prize at the Ian Stoutzker Competition at the RCM, Diploma at the Yampolsky International Violin Competition in Penza-Russia); in 2003, the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Gwyneth George Prize, the XIV Paper de Musica Competition and the Primer Palau Prize in Spain. She has participated in master classes by Ruggiero Ricci, Adelina Oprean, Martin Lovett (Amadeus Quartet) and the Silvestri String Quartet. Since her debut with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in 2002, she has played as soloist with the Balears Symphony Orchestra in Mallorca, the "Moskovia" Chamber Orchestra at the Great Hall in the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and the Valles Symphony Orchestra at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, being conducted by Conductors such as Franz-Paul Decker, Matthias Aschenbacher and Eduard Grach. She has also given many recitals in Spain, Italy, Germany and England.

Forthcoming performances include three concerts with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra performing Bartok Second Concerto conducted by Antoni Ros Marba, and a concert tour in Spain.