Irene Arriaza
Born in Seville in 2009 into a family of musicians, violinist Irene Arriaza began her studies at the age of four with her mother. From the age of five, she studied with María Rosaria D’Aprile and, beginning in 2018, continued her training in Toulouse with Clara Cernat.
Since the age of twelve, Irene has been a student of the Barenboim-Said Foundation Spain, where she has studied with Mirelys Morgan and Yun Jin Cho. Since 2024, she has had the privilege of studying in the class of Michael Barenboim. She has also received artistic guidance from Boris Brovtsyn, György Pauk, Andrey Bielow, Tatiana Samouil, Mohamed Hiber, Lars Anders Tomter, Vicente Huerta, Krzysztof Węgrzyn, and Igor Volochine.
In 2022, she was admitted to the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Italy, where she studied with Pavel Vernikov and Svetlana Makarova. Since 2024, she has continued her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London with Valeriy Sokolov.
A passionate and dedicated violinist, Irene gave her first public performance at the age of five and made her debut as a soloist with chamber orchestra at the age of seven. She is a scholarship recipient of the Spanish Society of Performing Artists (AIE) through its High Specialization Grant Program.
As a member of the Orchestra of the Orchestral Studies Academy of the Barenboim-Said Foundation, she has worked under conductors including Pablo Heras-Casado, Vasily Petrenko, Nuno Coelho, Oksana Lyniv, and Thomas Guggeis. At the age of fifteen, she had the opportunity to serve as concertmaster. Music critic J. A. Cantón wrote in Ritmo magazine: “The performance of the concertmaster, the young violinist from Seville Irene Arriaza, was admirable; at only fifteen years of age, she showed remarkable musical maturity, conveying through the sweetness of her vibrato a reflective lyrical quality that made her stand out in one of the most beautiful moments of the symphony.”
Throughout her career, Irene has received numerous awards, including First Prize at the XXX Visitación Magarzo Competition, First Prize at the Medici International Music Competition, First Prize at the 11th Young Performers Competition “Joaquín Villatoro,” First Prize at the Odin International Music Competition, and First Prize and the Audience Award at the 5th Villa Ducal de Osuna Competition, among many others.
As a soloist, she has performed Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, and Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 at festivals in Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom under conductors including Michael Thomas, Peter Selwyn, and Juan Paulo Gómez. She continues to perform regularly as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and is scheduled to appear at festivals in Bulgaria, Italy, and Spain in 2026.