Juan José Chuquisengo, piano

«His is a profound sensibility, one that is never tempted to overrule the music, but which attempts to realize the correlation between music and the affective world of man without the intervention of his ego. In other words, he has the ability to bring to bring the multiplicity of sound phenomena with their temporal implications into an unequivocal relationship with each other, Chuquisengo is a musician of true worth. I am certain that he has a great future ahead of him». Sergiu Celibidache (1993)

Chuquisengo grew up in Peru in an society where classical music was hardly ever played. It was a pure fluke that his father bought an old piano for five dollars. The eight-year-old Juan José thus set out without a teacher on learning folk tunes and began to improvise as well. Just one year later he had become a pupil of Elena Ichikawa at the National Conservatory in Lima, and was also studying conducting there. To earn a little money, he would play in restaurants, bars and churches. He then decided, against the will of his parents, to become a professional musician and left for Europe. He optained a place at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich in the masterclass of Professor Klaus Schilde. At the age of twenty he accordingly completed his diploma.

Around the middle of 1980s Chuquisengo came into contact with Sergiu Celibidache, a teacher whose influence was the strongest on his later development. From this point on Chuquisengo gave very few public concerts, and dedicated himself to developing his musical imagination and how to realize it in sound. He immersed himself in the subject of the phenomenology of music, travelling between Munich, Paris, and cities in Italy. He attended classes in Philosophy at the University of Munich and was present at many Celibidache’s rehearsals with the Munich Philharmonic. It was during this time that Chuquisengo started to «cross the border of subjectivity in order to arrive at the real laws that enable sounds, music and man to be conjoined», to quote the pianist’s own words. In constant contact with a few musical colleagues, Chuquisengo sought seclusion and worked over a period of seven years at refining his playing. He took part in masterclasses given by Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini, Jorge Bolet and Menachem Pressler, as well as many others, and worked up a repertoire that includes music from the Baroque era up to the present day.

Around the middle of the1990s Chuquisengo returned to the stage. In 1996 he was awarded a Fellowship for Artists from the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, remaining in New York for one year. Since then he has performed with various orchestras in Europe, The US, and in Latin America, as well as giving solo recitals.

So far two CDs have been published by mph Munich (with works by Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Berg and Ginastera). In autumn 2002 Sony Classical published Chuquisengo's third CD with works by Maurice Ravel. The recording got an awesome press, detailed press you may find here http://www.musikmph.de/artist_management/chuquisengo/cdreview.html

His 2nd CD recording for BMG/Sony Classical "Transcendent journey" (works by Bach, Haendel, John Foulds, John Corigliano, Schumann and Prokofiew) is available since April 2005. Some outstanding reviews are already published:
.".. This CD is anyway fantastic. "Transcendent journey", the document of a great pianist"
(Oswald Beaujean, Bavarian Radio Classic, April 2005)

"... Chuquisengo's playing on this CD takes one's breath away. .. I have no qualms about mentioning this CD in the same breath as Michelangeli's recording of the Debussy Préludes, Gulda's reading of the Beethoven sonatas, or Liszt's piano concertos in the hands of the Cziffra brothers...
(Benjamin Cohrs, Klassik heute, April 05)

"... The pianist's authority, the sound balanced and concentrated strength of Chuquisengo's playing turns this CD into a towering achievement."
( Frank Siebert, FONOFORUM May 05)

Juan José Chuquisengo lives together with his family in Munich.