New season of audivisual concerts.
Vanessa Fernaud
3 blog entries
Vanessa was born in Caracas, Venezuela but has Spanish nationality. Her parents are the late great pianist and ethno-musicologist from the Canary Islands Alvaro Fernaud Palarea and the notorious Valencian soprano and teacher Ana Fernaud. Vanessa started her musical studies with her father when she was only four years old, playing the piano. At nine she started playing the cello and decided to devote herself to this instrument.
She continued her musical training at Juan Manuel Olivares music school in Caracas and her cello studies with Nicolae Sarpe and later on with Adré Poulet, who studied with the famous cellist Paul Tortelier. Vanessa took master classes with Julius Berger and the critically acclaimed maestro Leonard Rose in New York.
Growing up in a musicians family as well as having the opportunity to know and spend time with great performers (such as Henry Szering, André Navarra, Simón Blech, Bruno Gelber, Martín Imáz, Judith Jaimes, Julius Berger, Leonard Rose, Maurice Hasson, Antonio De Racco) inspired Vanessa to aim at communicating through music.She moved to Rome to do her mastering studies of music at the National Academy Santa Cecilia, she also continued her cello training in the Academia Chigiana in Siena with maestro André Navarra. Once she was back in Madrid, she worked under the direction of the great Argentinean pianist and pedagogue Antonio De Racco, who had a clear influence on Vanessa, being her most important teacher. She studied composition with the Argentinean composer Pedro Sáez.Vanessa is methodical, meticulous and conscientious. She seeks perfection both with passion and deep analysis, all of which results in a spontaneously expressive performance that seems effortless, obtaining immediate communication with the audience. Music has given her the opportunity to be highly emotional though natural, one of the most difficult things to attain in an artistic career.An outstanding student from a very early age, Vanessa won the first competition “Jóvenes Solistas” (Young Soloists) that took place in Caracas. The ambassador of Venezuela in Washington gave her a prize that the Organización de Estados Americanos OEA (Organization of American States) offered to the most outstanding Latin-American talented musicians; Vanessa was praised for her remarkable artistic skills.In Italy, she received an “Academic Merit Recognition” from the Italo-American Institute IILA. She was part of the International Chamber Ensemble and the Cello Arts Ensemble, performing in an important series of concerts. She performed in Teatro Teresa Carreño (Caracas), Sala José Félix Rivas, Museo del Teclado, Ateneo de Caracas, Fundación Juan March (Madrid), Ateneo de Madrid and Festival de Jóvenes Intérpretes de Bordeaux FJIB (Young Performers Festival in Bordeaux). She was invited to perform Bach’s sonatas for cello and piano in the Year of Bach.Apart from many recitals, she has performed on TV for esmadrid.tv and La Sexta.
Throughout the years, Vanessa has treated music and the cello with and amazing dose of love and hard work. She moves guided by an instinctive musicality that can be appreciated in all her performances, rejecting all kinds of academic sophistication. The search for a beautiful sound has been a constant in her career and can be heard in her recordings of C. Franck, Chopin, Brahms and Prokofiev, it was the reason Several Records offered her to record the six suites for cello solo by Bach. This work gave Vanessa not only the recognition of the critics but situated her recording as a reference work –for her totally renewed vision– and gave her five nominations to the XII Music Awards in Spain.
Vanessa feels very fortunate for having had, since she was a child, the opportunity to do what she likes most: playing the cello. She knows it is a privilege to be able to bring joy into people’s lives through the beauty of music. At the same time, she has always thought that a musician must keep on learning and improving all their life. For her, music is not only related with perfection but also with the human being. Vanessa takes great care in her personal and family life. She compromises with the world around her and shows much love for nature and animals, cooperating and being an activist in different organizations to defend their rights. She is a member of the Sociedad de Acuarofília de Madrid.
The more mature an artist is, the higher their aspirations. This is why Vanessa affirms that “it is not so important to do the most, but the best you can”.
She currently lives in Madrid and is preparing a recording of the cello suites by Benjamin Britten.
She plays a Fernando Solar cello made in Madrid in 1986.