The Spanish composer and pianist Abraham Tena Manrique lands in the Asian market with his complete works for piano.
The musician, together with the Japanese label DaVinci, presents a three-CD box set in which we can hear the composer's fifty piano works, which will be released in the Asian market on the last Friday of September 2023.
Throughout the three CDs that make up this box set we can see how the composer's piano language evolves, not in vain fifteen years separate the first and the last work that make up this complete set. This news has been collected in interviews and articles in the magazines Ritmo and Melómano.
"Special mention of the Concert for piano and orchestra Op. 42 "Khárôn"
by Tena Manrique"
In December 2022, the last work composed by Tena Manrique received a special mention in the WPTA International Competition. This is the Piano Concerto No. 1 "Khárôn" Op. 42, which in addition to having been awarded, has obtained very positive reviews from professional colleagues.
His Op. 42 is also included in the historical list, made by Josu De Solaun, of compositions for this genre, by Spanish composers over 255 years. A list headed by Manuel Narro and his harpsichord concerto written in 1767.
An honor to appear on this fantastic list, with a genre of music as special as the Piano Concerto.
In 2022 the name of Abraham Tena Manrique has been related to international competitions.
Firstly, he has participated as a guest composer in two prestigious international competitions. His works were performed by dozens of participants in the WPTA IPC Spain and MIMAS Music Festival Competition (Italy) contests, awarding a special prize to the best performers of his compositions.
Secondly, he has been part of the jury of the first edition of the international online contest held in Hong Kong between November and December 2022.
Since the fall of 2022, two management agencies have been interested in the music of Tena Manrique. After signing two contracts, his name joins a select group of high-level musicians, represented by both agencies. Vida Art Management (whose headquarters are in Switzerland) and Quiero dar conciertos (headquarters in Spain).
In 2021 the DaVinci publishing house has concluded the ambitious project of publishing all the works composed by Abraham Tena Manrique. The final result is 7 beautiful volumes in which we find works for piano, for piano 4 hands, the concerto for piano and orchestra Op. 42, the oratorio "The seven last words of Christ on the Cross" Op. 40, chamber works with clarinet and a lied.
This news can be read in an extensive interview published in the magazine Ritmo of January 2022.
In April 2018, Abraham Tena Manrique is appointed President of the WPTA-SPAIN-COMPOSITION (World Piano Teachers Association). The WPTA is an association that exists in more than thirty countries around the world, where it organizes annual conferences, piano-playing competitions, composition and chamber music, as well as recitals and master-classes.
Between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Abraham Tena Manrique offers several recitals in which he performs the eighteen works for piano that figure on the CD that the Da Vinci publishing house issued at the end of 2017, performed by the composer and recorded at the recognized Auditori Pau Casals.
The Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona (Reial Cercle Artístic) is the emblematic place chosen for this presentation, as its privileged location at the Pignatelli Palace, right in the center of Barcelona, together with the beauty of its concert hall and the prestige of the entity - one of the main bastions where Catalan Modernism was developed - make this institution founded in 1881 the ideal place to host first concert this season by the musician.
The digital music magazine Clásica2 echoes this tour beginning, as it has done so many times with its achievements nationally and internationally.
At the end of 2017, Da Vinci publishers, who also own an internationally highly recognized record label, edit a CD with several of the works of Abraham Tena Manrique, performed by himself and recorded at the Auditori Pau Casals.
Still focusing on his concert playing, it is also worth mentioning the Closing Concert that offered at the III Edition of the International Festival Vila de Xàbia (Alicante), invited by Nati Ballarín, Director and founder of the same. Interested in the composer's piano works, she created the "Abraham Tena Manrique" prize for the VI Edition of the Vila de Xàbia International Piano Competition - of which she is also founder and director - which will take place next June 2018.
In 2017 Abraham Tena Manrique became a member of two major associations of composers in our country, such as the Federation of Associations of Iberian Composers (FAIC) and the Associació Catalana de Compositors (ACC). The latter has regularly scheduled concerts since the beginning of 2018, including works by Tena Manrique.
In 2016, the soloists of the OCNE (National Orchestra and Choir of Spain), premiered their Octeto Séneca Op. 31 at the National Auditorium in Madrid, after recording in Estudio 206, classical music programme on Radio Clásica (RNE).
However, the work of Tena Manrique is presently not only limited to its interpretative and editorial facets, since the composer is also writing the Cantata The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross, commissioned by Sergio Espejo, pianist of the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain (OCNE), to be presented at one of the Satellite Concerts organized annually by the OCNE at the Madrid Auditorium.
This will not be his first composition premiered at the Auditorium, since on March 1, 2016 the soloists of the OCNE performed his Octeto Séneca Op. 31, written by order of the aforementioned pianist, prior to recording at the Estudio 206 (RNE).
This work was published by the centenary Editorial Boileau, joining two compositions already published during the previous year in this famous and renowned Spanish publishing house: the Don Quixote String Quartet Op. 22a and the Don Quixote Trio for Piano Violin and Cello Op. 22B .
The Japanese publisher Da Vinci -directed by Edmondo Filippini, Director of the Mozart Foundation of Osaka and sponsored by the Italian Institute of Culture in Osaka- has published eighteen works for piano by Abraham Tena Manrique.
Since 2012, many musicians have premiered and performed some of their works for piano, piano four hands and piano and clarinet, and further compositions for additional chamber ensembles. Kiev Portella, founding member of the Mompou Foundation and excellent pianist, interprets several of his works assiduously in Barcelona, Tarragona or Menorca, just to name a few cities.
Likewise, the George Sand Piano Duo premiered and often performed two of his compositions for piano four hands, one of them written and dedicated to this chamber group, The garden of the Hesperides Op. 37, in theaters of Madrid, Lugo, Palma de Mallorca and Mérida.
Raquel del Val premieres in London, in February 2017, the Bagatelle Op. 23 'Alborada'. Jenna Sung does the same with the 2 Preludes Op. 26 in Birmingham, Patricia García Gil premieres the seven fantasies The Pilgrim Path Op. 20 in Huesca, Anthi and Kostaq Vrame perform the Fantasie for piano four hands Op. 1 in Albania and Luis Becerra premieres and plays Khárôn I Op. 32, and other stages, at the Rodrigo hall of the Palau de la Música in Valencia, and many more artists, such as Isabel Pérez Dobarro, Paula Coronas, Joana Resendes, Riccardo Bozolo, all of whom of recognized international prestige.