AI Artists - Andres Cardenes

Renowned concert violinist, concertmaster, conductor and teacher, Andrés Cárdenes brings to his performing the passion and the dedication of a master musician. Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from both critics and audiences alike for his ferocious technique balanced by a remarkable tonal subtlety. Since capturing the top American prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Cárdenes has appeared with over eighty orchestras worldwide, including those of Moscow, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Los Angeles, Houston, Helsinki, Caracas, Barcelona, Brussels and Shanghai. He has collaborated with such noted conductors as Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, André Previn, David Zinman, Charles Dutoit, the late Eduardo Mata, James Conlon and Gerard Schwarz. A frequent recitalist, Cárdenes has performed in many of the world’s leading cultural centers including New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, London, Mexico City and Moscow. In 2003, Cárdenes and pianist/conductor, Ian Hobson formed the Cárdenes-Hobson Duo.

Cárdenes has been an active teacher for over twenty years, beginning with his appointment to the faculty of Indiana University in 1979. A former student and protégé of the legendary Josef Gingold, he has continued the legacy and discipline of the master pedagogue as Professor of Music at the Universities of Michigan and Utah, and at Carnegie Mellon, where he holds the Dorothy Richard Starling and Alexander C. Speyer, Jr. Chair recipient, the first fully endowed chair in the CMU Music School, and was recently awarded the title of University Professor, the University’s highest distinction. Cárdenes has also given numerous master classes at Rice and Columbia Universities, among others. Cárdenes is a member of the renowned Carnegie Mellon Piano Trio, which has toured extensively throughout the United States. In 1996, he was appointed violinist of the Díaz Trio. Cárdenes also holds the Rachel Mellon Walton endowed Concertmaster chair with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

A champion of contemporary composers, Cárdenes has commissioned, premiered and/or recorded many works from composers such André Previn, Leonardo Balada, Ramiro Cortés, Ricardo Lorenz, Edgar Meyer, Rodion Schedrin, Mariana Villanueva, Elbert Lechtman and Thomas Oboe Lee. Recent world premieres include David Stock’s Violin Concerto and Roberto Sierra’s Evocacíones, both with the Pittsburgh Symphony, plus additional performances with the Utah and West Virginia Symphonies. The New York premiere of Stock’s Violin Concerto took place at Carnegie Hall in November 1998 with the American Composer’s Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. In the 2001/02 season Cárdenes performed the newly written Concerto for Violin by the eclectic composer Edgar Meyer with Leonard Slatkin and the Pittsburgh Symphony. In November of 2003, Andrés Cárdenes will be joined by violist, Roberto Diaz at Heinz Hall in the world premiere of Roberto Sierra’s Double Concerto commissioned jointly by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony. Philadelphia will premiere the work in Philadelphia in March of 2004.
Since the 1999/2000 season, Cárdenes has held the post of Artistic Director of the recently founded Nuance Series featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble created especially for his talents, where he plays and conducts concerts in Pittsburgh and tours throughout the United States.

Andrés Cárdenes can be heard performing the Arensky and Tchaikovsky Piano Trio with cellist Jeffrey Solow and pianist Mona Golabek on the Delos Label – a recording that received a Grammy nomination in 1991. Arabesque Recordings has released Saint-Saens Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Doris Stevenson and It’s Peaceful Here – a rare collection of 19 short recital pieces for violin and piano with Chilean pianist Luz Manriquez. In 1997 Ocean Records released Made in the U.S.A., a compilation (chosen and performed by Cárdenes) of short pieces for violin by American composers, past and present. Gramophone Radio Chart named it one of the year’s best classical releases. In mid-2001, Ocean will release “A Cuban Blues Man”, Cárdenes first jazz crossover recording, playing works written especially for him by composer and pianist jazz great, Mike Garson, who appears on the recording. In September of 2000, Marco Polo Records released the world premiere recording of Leonardo Balada’s Violin Concerto with Cárdenes as soloist with the Barcelona Symphony. Cárdenes can be heard on the Sony, RCA, ProArte, Melodya, Telarc and Enharmonic labels.

Together with his family, Cárdenes has founded the Culver City Chamber Orchestra (CA) where he serves as Music Director and Advisor. Cultural Ambassador for UNICEF from 1980-1991 and an indefatigable spokesperson for the Arts, Andrés Cárdenes has received numerous awards for his community and cultural contributions, most notably from the Cities of Los Angeles and Shanghai, the Mexican Red Cross, Pittsburgh Magazine’s 1997 Classical Artist of the Year and 2001’s “Shalom” Award from Kollel’s International Jewish Center for promoting world harmony and peace through music.