Pianist is awarded Mexico's Fine Arts Medal

Considered one of the most important artists and an outstanding trainer of successful pianists, Luz María Puente , 93, will be awarded Mexico's Fine Arts Medal for trajectory.

The ceremony will be held on September 27 in the Manuel M. Ponce Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts ( Palacio de Bellas Artes ) in Mexico City , the same hall in which Puente offered her first piano recital, and it will be presided by Lidia Camacho , Director of Mexico's National Institute of Fine Arts ( Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes abbreviated INBA ).

Luz María Puente will be recognized for her trajectory of more than 50 years that has imprinted the arts in Mexico.

The artist is responsible for the formation of new generations of pianists in Mexico, among them her son Jorge Federico Osorio , one of the most important pianists in the world today.

Puente was born in Los Angeles , in 1923 , although she has lived in Mexico since her childhood. At 14, she enrolled in the National Conservatory of Mexico ( Conservatorio Nacional de Música ) where she studied with Alberto Montero. She perfected chamber music with Sandor Roth and piano technique with Bernard Flavigny and Jörg Demus in Mexico and with Michele Campanella and Guido Agosti at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena , Italy . Joaquín Achúcarro and Reah Sadowsky were her teachers as well.

According to the INBA, Puente has performed in every symphonic and philharmonic orchestra in the country.

She has given recitals in the main concert halls of France , Germany , Belgium , Italy , Austria and the United States directed by Carlos Chávez , Luis Herrera de la Fuente , Eduardo Mata , Enrique Bátiz , Enrique Diemecke , José F. Vásquez , Lorin Maazel and Sergiu Celibidache , among others.

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