UC Riverside Department of Music presents:

Ana Benavides plays Spanish piano classics

Award-winning pianist Ana Benavides has recorded and published unknown piano works mainly from 19th-century Spain. She is Associate Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a Distinguished Professor at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid (Spain). During this concert, she will perform several works for piano, including Música para un bailete by Joaquín Nin Castellanos (1879–1949); Dr. Benavides discovered this manuscript in UCR Library’s Special Collections–join us for this special world premiere!

BIO

Originally from Malaga, Ana has completed studies in Madrid, Vienna, and Barcelona, with Manuel Carra or Alicia de Larrocha, among others, as teachers. She holds a Ph.D. in Humanities from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid with an Extraordinary Doctorate Prize. Ana Benavides was a scholar-in-residence at the University of California in Riverside in 2014/2015 and again in 2022/2023, invited by Prof. Walter Clark. She is an Associate Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a Distinguished Professor at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid (Spain). Ana Benavides has performed recitals throughout Europe, Australia, and North and South America. She maintains an active interest in the Spanish piano repertoire of the 19th century and is often invited to give lectures, courses, and concerts on this topic. Award-winning pianist Ana has recorded and published unknown piano works mainly from 19th-century Spain. Her collection Piano inédito español del siglo XIX was awarded the Prize for the Best Musical Publication for Music by the Academia de la Música and the SGAE (Spanish Association of Authors’ Rights). Moreover, she co-edited (with Walter Aaron Clark) and contributed to the catalog of the exhibition El paisaje acústico de Joaquín Rodrigo, organized by the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid in 2019 for the twentieth anniversary of the composer’s death. The cd Diálogos concertados. Obras para piano de José Luis Turina y Manuel Carra (2021), and the book El piano. Instrumento, historia y protagonistas (2022) constitutes other research endeavors. She has been curator of the exhibition Al compás de Madrid, organized by the Community of Madrid (2025). Besides, she has also coordinated numerous lecture-concert series, many of them carried out as part of her activity of social commitment for the elderly.

Part of the 2025-2026 Florence Bayz Music Series

The Florence Bayz Music Series offers online concerts, lectures, and presentations of academic research by Department of Music faculty, postdoctoral researchers, students, and international guest artists and scholars.

Dr. Amy Skjerseth (she/her), Assistant Professor of Popular Music, Coordinator

Events are free and open to the public.

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