Douglas Riva

American pianist Douglas Riva has gained international recognition for his profound knowledge of Spanish music and no less an authority than the distinguished Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge has described him as an exceptional pianist. Mr. Riva was named Artist and Scholar in Residence at the Foundation for Iberian Music at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Douglas Riva’s interpretations of the works of Enrique Granados have earned him his reputation as today’s leading exponent of Granados’ piano music. His recordings for Naxos of the complete piano works of Granados, comprising 231works including 102 World Premiere recordings have won worldwide critical acclaim. Mr. Riva and mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna curated two concert series presented by the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York. The first series, 2016, was dedicated to the music of Enrique Granados and the second, 2019, to Joaquín Rodrigo. Douglas Riva is the Assistant Director of the eighteen-volume critical edition of the Complete Works for Piano of Enrique Granados, directed by Alicia de Larrocha and published by Editorial Boileau, Barcelona. In November, 2016 the Complutense University, Madrid, published his critical edition of the complete orchestral works by Granados, including the first publication of 8 works. Mr. Riva recorded one of these works, Elisenda, with the City of Granada Orchestra, directed by Cristóbal Soler, for Deutsche Grammophon. He has also performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Morgan Library, Queen Elizabeth Hall and numerous festivals in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Holland, and the United States. He gave the first American performance of a newly discovered Scarlatti sonata at the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the world première of Gazebo Dances by John Corigliano. Granados’s long-lost masterpiece Cant de les estrelles for piano solo, organ and choruses was performed for only the second time in history by Douglas Riva and the Voices of Ascension, directed by Dennis Keene in 2007. The Naxos recording of the première performance, Song of the Stars, was nominated for a GRAMMY award.