On my About me page, I wrote about a pupil of mine when I was teaching in Spain, Pablo Ruiz Segura, who won the Infanta Cristina national piano competition. Infanta Cristina is the youngest daughter of the former King and Queen of Spain Juan Carlos I and Sofía. The competition is one of the most prestigious in Spain.

I was digging through my archive and found the following newspaper clippings that I would like to share with you along with English translations.

Pablo Ruiz, 12 years old.

The sexitano child Pablo Ruiz achieves The first prize of the contest piano ‘Infanta Cristina’

The Almuñécar child, Pablo Ruiz Segura, received today in Madrid the first prize of the 10th Contest National Piano Infanta Cristina, in the child mode, winning 125,000 pesetas. With 12 years of age. has been trained at the Municipal School of Music of Almuñécar and today, in addition of studying 1st ESO in the Virgen de la Antigua School of the Almuñécar locality, also continues his musical training in the Conservatory of Granada, in Fifth piano course.

Interpreted Program

The musician from Almuñécar competed with thirty-six other contestants in the first eliminatory test, where he had to interpret a program of free choice and another work chosen by the jury. The program presented by Pablo Ruiz Segura collected the works French Suite number 2 by Bach: Sonata No. 19. Op.49, by Beethoven; Waltz No. 9, Op. 69, by Chopin and Dance No. 5, by Granados.

The jury, chaired by the pianist and Secretary-General of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Ferando de Madrid, Antonio Iglesias, also had Pilar Bilbao, professor at the Conservatory Superior of Music Manuel Castle of Seville; Manuel Carra, full member of the Academy San Fernando de Madrid; Joaquín Soriano, Professor of Superior Conservatory of Music from Madrid, and Ignacio Yepes, director principal of the Classical Orchestra of Madrid and the Symphony Orchestra of Murcia.

The Infanta Cristina contest is celebrated biannually and already occupies a prominent place in the world of music in Spain. In the children’s category of the contest, children up to 13 years old of age, some are tested emerging talents, such as Pablo Ruiz Segura.

Infanta Cristina presided over the awards ceremony of the Piano Competition that bears her name at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts

The Infanta Cristina presided yesterday at the closing ceremony and the awards ceremony of the 10th Contest of Piano Infanta Cristina, in an event organized by the Loewe Foundation and the Hazen-Hosseschrueders, and which was developed at the headquarters of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. The aim of this award is to support young people Interpreters under 21 years of age. The winners of the Contest were: Pablo Ruiz Segura, Juan Carlos Fernández Nieto, Pedro Casals, Luis del Valle and Ivan Carlos Martín.