biography
Chilean-American Pianist, Matias Nestor Cuevas, has been pursuing his Master of Music degree in piano performance at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami with Kevin Kenner since 2023. He earned his Undergraduate degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Dr. Daniel Shapiro and previously studied under the guidance of Vincenzo Balzani and Silvia Rumi at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milan, Italy.
Matias started playing the piano at the age of 7 while still completing his academic studies. From 2011 to 2013 he attended the Crowden School of Music in Berkeley, California, where he studied with Arkadi Serper.
Matias uniquely prioritizes the audience-performer connection by reintroducing performance traditions of salon recitals of the 19th century. This creates a synergy between the audience and performer which results in an intense emotional experience where free expression takes full control. Clearly sharing and inspiring emotions has always been the focus for Cuevas. In his eyes, that should be the most important task for any musician.
He has won various prizes in national and international piano competitions such as the 2nd prize in the Romantic category and 1st prize in the 21st-century category in the “Città di Cantù” international competition for piano and orchestra in Cantù, Italy, the 1st prize in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s annual Milhaud Competition, the grand prize in the “Pozzolino” piano competition in Seregno, Italy, the 3rd prize in the “Premio del Conservatorio” competition organized by the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan, Italy, with cellist, Francesco Tamburini, the grand prize in the “Monterosa-Kawai” piano competition in Varallo, Italy, the grand prize in the Tadini International Music Competition in Lovere, Italy, the 1st prize in the “Nuova Coppa Pianisti” piano competition in Osimo, Italy, the 1st prize in the “PianoTalents” Competition in Milan, Italy, the 1st prize in the “Albenga” international piano competition in Albenga, Italy, and the 2nd prize in the International piano competition in Malta among others.
Matias has been invited to perform in Giovanni Allevi’s Christmas tour with the Italian Symphonic Orchestra at the BRIXIUM forum in Brescia, Italy, and to a sold-out “Teatro Colosseo” in Torino, Italy, in the PianoEchos festival in Lu, Monferrato, Italy, in the Vatican Museums in Rome, in Izmir, Turkey, in the 1st edition of the “Kransnagorsk Music Festival” in Moscow, Russia, in the “Résonances Musique de Chambre” music festival in Le Havre, France, in the “G. Verdi” Conservatory concert series, in the Teatro alla Scala, at the Hungarian pavilion of the 2015 EXPO for the Hungarian television program “Virtuozok”, in the SFMF Young Artist’s Concert” in the San Francisco Conservatory, and in the Junior Bach festival in the California Bay Area in Berkeley, California and many more. He has also frequently performed as a soloist with the “M. Jora” Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, the Italian Symphonic Orchestra, and the “Pozzoli” Chamber Orchestra across Italy and Romania.
