Abraham
Tena Manrique
Tena Manrique
Curriculum
Currently, the composer Tena Manrique is immersed in two exciting projects. One of them will be the world premiere of his first concerto for piano and orchestra 'Khárôn' Op. 42. This project will feature an excellent and brilliant Spanish pianist of international fame, whose name will be revealed at the time, and the emerging and supportive OSSBcn. They will be in charge of performing the premiere at the Auditori de Barcelona or at the Palau de la música, also in Barcelona. This work received an honorable mention in 2022 at the WPTA International Piano Competition.
Another project that will see the light of day at the beginning of 2025 is the publication of his symphonic poem Ophelia Op. 43, by the Japanese publishing house DaVinci, with which he has been working for years, once again expanding the catalog of works published in the Asian market. At the end of 2024, the composer will finish the composition of his Op. 43, after two years of intense and introspective work.
In 2024, the musician Tena Manrique gave a lecture presented by the renowned essayist, philosopher and pedagogue Gregorio Luri at the Tatiana Foundation in Madrid, entitled 'the music of the other shore'. In it, the composer performed several of his latest compositions for piano, explaining the different shores that his music crosses. In an evening full of transcendence, the music showed the attendees what inhabits all the shores that human beings are invited to visit.
In 2023, Tena Manrique recorded the complete catalogue for solo piano in the Oriol Martorell hall of the Auditori in Barcelona, for the Japanese record label DaVinci. In a 3-CD box set are the 50 works written between 2004 and 2019. Fifteen years separate the first and last work for piano, a period of time long enough to see how the musical and piano language of the composer Tena Manrique evolves. This record production is released to the Asian market and its impact is reported in the music magazines Ritmo and Melómano, through interviews, articles and press releases. Once again the name of the composer and pianist appears in these specialized music media, references and direct witnesses of what happens around music in our country.
.
Since 2022, Tena Manrique has been part of the jury of two annual international competitions, held in Hong Kong. They are the IYAO Competition and ICMT Competition. Six editions to date endorse the professionalism and trust placed by the founders and organizers of both events in the composer and pianist, in the tasks of evaluating and discovering new musical talents worldwide. In one of these editions, in addition, one of his compositions for piano four hands, the Nocturne Op. 19 specifically, was chosen by some excellent contestants, to be presented in the competition.
In 2021 and 2022, Tena Manrique was a guest composer at two international competitions and festivals, WPTA Spain and MIMAS Music Festival Competition. Dozens of contestants from different countries around the world brilliantly performed many of his compositions at both competitions. At these competitions, a financial scholarship was awarded to the best performer of one of his compositions.
In 2021, the DaVinci publishing house completed the ambitious project of publishing all the works composed by Abraham Tena Manrique. A musical catalogue of sixty-five compositions of various musical genres in 7 elegant volumes in which we find works for solo piano, works for piano 4 hands, his first concerto for piano and orchestra 'Khárôn' Op. 42, his oratorio 'The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross' Op. 40, numerous chamber compositions for various instrumental formations and his lied 'Zarathustra'. This great news for Tena Manrique's music can be read in an extensive interview published in the magazine Ritmo in January 2022. In it, the composer talks to us about various aspects of his long career and reveals several short and medium-term projects.
About the Oratorio 'Las siete palabras de Cristo en la Cruz', written and published in 2018. A composition written by order of Sergio Espejo, pianist of OCNE. This work is presented as a project to be programmed in one of the Satellite Concerts organized annually by the OCNE at the National Auditorium in Madrid. In one of these concerts, the OCNE soloists premiered on March 1, 2016 the Octeto Seneca Op. 31 by Tena Manrique, also written by order of the aforementioned pianist, after recording in Studio 206, a musical program on Radio Clásica (RNE). This work was published by the century-old Editorial Boileau, joining his compositions already published during the previous year: the string quartet Don Quixote Op. 22a and its rewriting in trio for piano, violin and cello Don Quixote Op. 22b.
In April 2018, Abraham Tena Manrique was appointed President of the WPTA-SPAIN COMPOSITION (World Piano Teachers Association). This association exists in more than thirty countries around the world, where it annually organises conferences, piano, composition and chamber music competitions, as well as recitals and masterclasses. Tena Manrique held this position until 2024, when he decided to leave this prestigious position in the Association, to devote himself more in-depth to his work as a composer of large-format works.
Between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Abraham Tena Manrique gave various recitals in Barcelona, in which he performed the eighteen piano works that make up the CD that the Da Vinci label released at the end of 2017. This first recording with the Japanese label includes an interesting and refined selection of several of his piano compositions. The Auditori Pau Casals is the place chosen by the composer to perform his first major recording on the piano.
The Real Círculo Artístico de Barcelona is the emblematic place chosen for the presentation of the first CD with which the composer presents himself in the Asian market, since its privileged location in the Pignatelli Palace, in the heart of Barcelona, together with the beauty of its concert hall and the prestige of the entity - one of the main bastions where Catalan modernism developed - make this institution founded in 1881 the ideal place for the musician's first concert of this season. The digital music magazine Clásica2 echoes this start of the tour, as it has done many other times with his achievements at a national and international level, both as a pianist and as a composer.
Without leaving aside his concert aspect, it is also worth highlighting the Closing Concert that he offers at the III Edition of the Villa de Xàbia International Festival (Alicante), invited by Nati Ballarín, its director and founder. Interested in the composer's piano works, she created the 'Abraham Tena Manrique' award for the VI Edition of the Villa de Xàbia International Piano Competition – of which she is also the founder and director – which took place in June 2018.
Since 2012, numerous national and international musicians have premiered and performed in concert numerous works for piano, for piano four hands and for piano and clarinet, and other compositions for other chamber groups. Among them, kyiv Portella stands out, a founding member of the Fundació Mompou and an excellent pianist, who regularly performs several of his works in Barcelona, Tarragona or Menorca, among other cities. George Sand Piano Duo often premiere and perform 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 theatres in Madrid, Lugo, Palma de Mallorca and Mérida.
Raquel del Val premiered the Bagatelle Op. 23 'Alborada' in London in February 2017, 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 Khárôn I Op. 32 and performs it, among other venues, in the Rodrigo hall of the Palau de la Música in Valencia, and many more artists, such as Isabel Pérez Dobarro, Anna Sutyagina, Joana Resendes, Riccardo Bozolo, Ruben Russo, Marianna Prjevalskaya, the Havel Quartet and many more; all of them of recognized international prestige.
Abraham's works for piano 4 hands were performed by himself and his sister Esther in almost a hundred concerts in many cities of Spain, during the almost ten years that the piano duo Tena Manrique was formed. The duo's repertoire was very extensive, but the composer's works always had a place.
Tena Manrique has a double degree from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo. In the year 2000 he finished his brilliant studies of piano and musical language. During his training he received letters of recommendation from several doctors and professors from Spain and the USA, endorsing his potential and his musical intelligence, both as a pianist and as a composer.
Another project that will see the light of day at the beginning of 2025 is the publication of his symphonic poem Ophelia Op. 43, by the Japanese publishing house DaVinci, with which he has been working for years, once again expanding the catalog of works published in the Asian market. At the end of 2024, the composer will finish the composition of his Op. 43, after two years of intense and introspective work.
In 2024, the musician Tena Manrique gave a lecture presented by the renowned essayist, philosopher and pedagogue Gregorio Luri at the Tatiana Foundation in Madrid, entitled 'the music of the other shore'. In it, the composer performed several of his latest compositions for piano, explaining the different shores that his music crosses. In an evening full of transcendence, the music showed the attendees what inhabits all the shores that human beings are invited to visit.
In 2023, Tena Manrique recorded the complete catalogue for solo piano in the Oriol Martorell hall of the Auditori in Barcelona, for the Japanese record label DaVinci. In a 3-CD box set are the 50 works written between 2004 and 2019. Fifteen years separate the first and last work for piano, a period of time long enough to see how the musical and piano language of the composer Tena Manrique evolves. This record production is released to the Asian market and its impact is reported in the music magazines Ritmo and Melómano, through interviews, articles and press releases. Once again the name of the composer and pianist appears in these specialized music media, references and direct witnesses of what happens around music in our country.
.
Since 2022, Tena Manrique has been part of the jury of two annual international competitions, held in Hong Kong. They are the IYAO Competition and ICMT Competition. Six editions to date endorse the professionalism and trust placed by the founders and organizers of both events in the composer and pianist, in the tasks of evaluating and discovering new musical talents worldwide. In one of these editions, in addition, one of his compositions for piano four hands, the Nocturne Op. 19 specifically, was chosen by some excellent contestants, to be presented in the competition.
In 2021 and 2022, Tena Manrique was a guest composer at two international competitions and festivals, WPTA Spain and MIMAS Music Festival Competition. Dozens of contestants from different countries around the world brilliantly performed many of his compositions at both competitions. At these competitions, a financial scholarship was awarded to the best performer of one of his compositions.
In 2021, the DaVinci publishing house completed the ambitious project of publishing all the works composed by Abraham Tena Manrique. A musical catalogue of sixty-five compositions of various musical genres in 7 elegant volumes in which we find works for solo piano, works for piano 4 hands, his first concerto for piano and orchestra 'Khárôn' Op. 42, his oratorio 'The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross' Op. 40, numerous chamber compositions for various instrumental formations and his lied 'Zarathustra'. This great news for Tena Manrique's music can be read in an extensive interview published in the magazine Ritmo in January 2022. In it, the composer talks to us about various aspects of his long career and reveals several short and medium-term projects.
About the Oratorio 'Las siete palabras de Cristo en la Cruz', written and published in 2018. A composition written by order of Sergio Espejo, pianist of OCNE. This work is presented as a project to be programmed in one of the Satellite Concerts organized annually by the OCNE at the National Auditorium in Madrid. In one of these concerts, the OCNE soloists premiered on March 1, 2016 the Octeto Seneca Op. 31 by Tena Manrique, also written by order of the aforementioned pianist, after recording in Studio 206, a musical program on Radio Clásica (RNE). This work was published by the century-old Editorial Boileau, joining his compositions already published during the previous year: the string quartet Don Quixote Op. 22a and its rewriting in trio for piano, violin and cello Don Quixote Op. 22b.
In April 2018, Abraham Tena Manrique was appointed President of the WPTA-SPAIN COMPOSITION (World Piano Teachers Association). This association exists in more than thirty countries around the world, where it annually organises conferences, piano, composition and chamber music competitions, as well as recitals and masterclasses. Tena Manrique held this position until 2024, when he decided to leave this prestigious position in the Association, to devote himself more in-depth to his work as a composer of large-format works.
Between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Abraham Tena Manrique gave various recitals in Barcelona, in which he performed the eighteen piano works that make up the CD that the Da Vinci label released at the end of 2017. This first recording with the Japanese label includes an interesting and refined selection of several of his piano compositions. The Auditori Pau Casals is the place chosen by the composer to perform his first major recording on the piano.
The Real Círculo Artístico de Barcelona is the emblematic place chosen for the presentation of the first CD with which the composer presents himself in the Asian market, since its privileged location in the Pignatelli Palace, in the heart of Barcelona, together with the beauty of its concert hall and the prestige of the entity - one of the main bastions where Catalan modernism developed - make this institution founded in 1881 the ideal place for the musician's first concert of this season. The digital music magazine Clásica2 echoes this start of the tour, as it has done many other times with his achievements at a national and international level, both as a pianist and as a composer.
Without leaving aside his concert aspect, it is also worth highlighting the Closing Concert that he offers at the III Edition of the Villa de Xàbia International Festival (Alicante), invited by Nati Ballarín, its director and founder. Interested in the composer's piano works, she created the 'Abraham Tena Manrique' award for the VI Edition of the Villa de Xàbia International Piano Competition – of which she is also the founder and director – which took place in June 2018.
Since 2012, numerous national and international musicians have premiered and performed in concert numerous works for piano, for piano four hands and for piano and clarinet, and other compositions for other chamber groups. Among them, kyiv Portella stands out, a founding member of the Fundació Mompou and an excellent pianist, who regularly performs several of his works in Barcelona, Tarragona or Menorca, among other cities. George Sand Piano Duo often premiere and perform 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 theatres in Madrid, Lugo, Palma de Mallorca and Mérida.
Raquel del Val premiered the Bagatelle Op. 23 'Alborada' in London in February 2017, 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 Khárôn I Op. 32 and performs it, among other venues, in the Rodrigo hall of the Palau de la Música in Valencia, and many more artists, such as Isabel Pérez Dobarro, Anna Sutyagina, Joana Resendes, Riccardo Bozolo, Ruben Russo, Marianna Prjevalskaya, the Havel Quartet and many more; all of them of recognized international prestige.
Abraham's works for piano 4 hands were performed by himself and his sister Esther in almost a hundred concerts in many cities of Spain, during the almost ten years that the piano duo Tena Manrique was formed. The duo's repertoire was very extensive, but the composer's works always had a place.
Tena Manrique has a double degree from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo. In the year 2000 he finished his brilliant studies of piano and musical language. During his training he received letters of recommendation from several doctors and professors from Spain and the USA, endorsing his potential and his musical intelligence, both as a pianist and as a composer.