Juana Zayas Biography by Bradley Torreano ..
The Cuban-born pianist, Juana Zayas, began to pick out folk tunes on the keyboard by ear when only 2 years old.
Pianist Juana Zayas to perform Feb. 20
Archive
February 15, 2007
Pianist Juana Zayas will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20 at Meany Hall. Known for her lilting lyricism and impassioned power, the Cuban-born Zayas is known as one of the greatest living Chopin interpreters, and will be presenting several Chopin pieces as part of her program.
Taking to music early, Zayas began to pick out folk tunes on the keyboard by ear at the age of 2.
By age 4, she was reading music and playing four-hand duets with her mother.
Miss Zayas, who was born in Cuba and has studied and toured both in Europe and this country, is by any measure a good pianist.At age 7, she entered the Peyrellade Conservatory of Music in Havana and gave her first solo recital, performing works by Beethoven, Handel, and Chopin. By age 11, she had earned a Gold Medal at the Peyrellade Conservatory, for her performance of the Schumann Concerto.
During her childhood, performances by Jorge Bolet, Claudio Arrau, Friedrich Gulda, and Arthur Rubinstein (who played every year in Zayas’s native Havana) were among her earliest and most vivid mu