Born in Germany in 1970, Claudio Martínez-Mehner began his music studies at an early age at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Madrid in Madrid with Amparo Fuster, Pedro Lerma and Joaquín Soriano. In addition to his piano studies, he participated in the Spanish National Youth Orchestra as a violist and in the Chamber Orchestra of the German School as a violinist, violist and harpsichord player.
Claudio Martínez-Mehner continued his studies at the Tchaikovsky-Conservatory in Moscow, the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, the Fondazione per il Pianoforte in Como; and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. His main professors were Dmitri Bashkirov, Vitalij Margulis and Leon Fleisher. He participated in master classes given by Murray Perahia, Fou Ts’ong, Alexis Weissenberg, Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Mstislav Rostropovich, among others. Lately he has received invaluable advice by Prof. Ferenc Rados in Budapest.
At the ages of 13 and 15 Claudio Martínez-Mehner won first prize with special mention in the German “Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert”. He was a finalist in the International Piano Competition “Paloma O’Shea” in Santander (1990) and won first prizes in the international competitions “Pilar Bayona” in Zaragoza (1992), “Fondation Chimay” in Belgium (1993), and “Dino Ciani” in Milano (1993).
As a soloist he performed in most major cities in Europe, United States, Russia, Central America, Japan and Korea, with orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, Filarmónica of the Teatro Alla Scala, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Norddeutsche Rundfunk, Filarmonia Hungarica and most of the major Spanish orchestras. Claudio Martínez-Mehner is an avid chamber music player and has performed with many ensembles in Europe and Asia.
During a seven-year long rest due to an injury, he became interested in conducting, attending master classes with Robert Spano, Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink. He has been invited as a conductor with the “Orquesta Filarmónica de Santo Domingo” and has lead several ensembles of contemporary music. In 1998 he was Associate Music Coordinator of the Spoleto Festival in Italy and Assistant Conductor. From 1999 – 2003 he was Artistic and Academic Director of the Lucena International Summer School and Piano Festival.
He has been assistant piano teacher to Prof. Dmitri Bashkirov at the “Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofía” for several years . In addition, he holds a piano teaching position at the “Conservatorio Superior de Música” in Salamanca, Spain. Currently Claudio Martínez-Mehner is a professor at the Basel Music Academy and at the Cologne University of Music. He is frequently invited to teach master classes in Europe, the US and Korea.
After his astonishing debut at the Miami International Piano Festival in 2010 he was re-invited to perform in 2012, and 2016. He is one of the most important pianists presented in this Festival for his role as a mentor for several aspiring pianists today.
Claudio Martínez Mehner is in the Piano Faculty of the Miami International Piano Festival academy since 2016.