Leonel Morales

Professor at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg, Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio, and the Escuela Superior de Música Forum Musikae. Exclusive Artist of Yangtze River Piano (China), Artistic Director and Founder of the María Herrero International Piano Competition (Granada), and the International Piano Composers Competition of Spain (member of the WFIMC) in Madrid, as well as the Granada Music Festival “Leonel Morales and Friends”. Since 2024, exclusive representative of the prestigious German piano brand Grotian-Steinweg in Spain.

Leonel Morales has been an exclusive artist of the concert agency MUSIESPAÑA for over 25 years and is also a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Santa Isabel de Hungría.

Born in Cuba, he is a naturalized Spanish citizen and has been a resident since 1991. He studied at the University of Havana under the guidance of maestro Frank Fernández, a student of Víctor Merzhanov, thus his education follows the deepest roots of the great and traditional Russian school. He also studied in Weimar with maestro Jacov Latainer and worked with Mihail Voskresensky during his time in Cuba as a selected student. He served as an assistant for two years at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg in the class of the late great maestro Aquiles Delle Vigne.

Leonel Morales arrived in Spain at the age of 25 and between the ages of 26 and 28, he won first prizes in several international competitions such as the Guerrero Foundation International Piano Competition, Citat de Manresa, Teresa Carreño, Jaén International Piano Competition, along with special prizes for Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music and the “Rosa Sabater” Award for Best Interpretation of Spanish Music, Second Prize in the Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition, Oporto, Prize with Distinction in the Aosta International Piano Competition, Sommerakademie Prize from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, William Kapell, etc.

At the age of 28, he stopped competing as his career was fully consolidated, performing with all the major orchestras in Spain.