Classical I – Leonel Morales
Pianist Leonel Morales is a professor at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg, Austria, and at the University Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid, Spain; and he is the founder and artistic director of the Maria Herrero International Piano Competition in Granada, La Rioja International Piano Competition in La Rioja, and the Spanish Composer International Piano Competition in Madrid. Born in Cuba, Morales is a Spanish citizen who has lived in Spain since 1991. He graduated from the University of Havana under the tutelage of Frank Fernandez, in the tradition of the Russian school leading back to Samuil Feinberg, and he subsequently studied with Dmitry Voskresensky and Jacov Latainer.

Morales is regularly invited to be part of the jury at major international piano competitions such as Shenzen Piano and Orchestra International Piano Competition, the Cleveland Competition, Pozzoli, Scriabin (Grosseto), Lyon, Valsesia and Cesar Franck International Piano Competition. He gives master classes all over the world, and his students have been prizewinners in more than forty international piano competitions.

In tours of the United States with the National Symphony Orchestra of Spain and the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Morales has performed in the most important halls of North America, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, to great critical and public acclaim.