María Alejandra Jiménez (1997, Barquisimeto, Venezuela) is a Basel-based violinist and writer specialized on 20th and 21st century music. She experiments a lot with solo violin recitals, mixing classical repertoire, text and contemporary music. María Alejandra has a vast experience playing chamber and ensemble music in various venues in Switzerland, France, Spain and Venezuela, which makes her a versatile and multifaceted violinist.
Her interest in contemporary music leads her to perform in different venues, festivals and concert series, such as KKL Konzertsaal, Gare du Nord, Bahnhof für Neue Musik, the Théâtre 2.21, the Salle Paderewski, the Societé de Musique Contemporaine Lausanne, Resis Festival and the Zeiträume Basel festival under the direction of composers and musicians such as Beat Furrer, Thomas Adès, Heinz Holliger, Baldur Brönnimann, William Blank and Pierre-Stéphane Meugé. She is a member of Arxis Ensemble, a contemporary music ensemble based in Spain, and of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra.
She develops, in 2021, a project called Berio-Bach-Poésie, which includes a performance of her poetry. This program was broadcasted by Espace 2, a station in the Swiss radio and television, and led her to win the third prize in the Lavaux Classic competition.
María Alejandra has a broad experience playing in solo recitals and chamber music groups, including numerous concerts in cultural centers in Caracas (such as the Asociación Cultural Humboldt, the Venezuelan American center, the Quinta Anauco Museum, the Alliance Française and the French and Austrian embassies in Caracas) as well as in Aveyron, thanks to the support of the foundation Musique en Joie. In 2014 she debuted as a soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela.
She began her musical studies in Venezuela, at the age of 6, being part of the orchestras of El Sistema, which allowed her to enrich her knowledge of the symphonic repertoire and perform with prestigious conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle and Gustavo Dudamel.
Between 2009 and 2013, she studied with Simon Gollo in the framework of El Sistema and Mozarteum Caracas. She also took part in lessons and masterclasses with Virginie Robilliard and Gyula Stuller. In 2014 she continued her education at the Mozarteum Caracas music school where she deepened her chamber music practice and focused on the study of music history and musical analysis. In 2015 she was invited by Yuval Yaron to receive lessons, during six months, at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
María Alejandra brilliantly obtained, in 2019, her bachelor’s degree in music, at the Haute École de Musique, in Lausanne, in the class of Virginie Robilliard. In 2021 she finished her master’s degree in music performance at the same institution, obtaining awards for her excellent final recitals.
She is currently pursuing a specialized master’s degree in contemporary music performance at the Hochschule für Musik Basel, where she is a member of Sonic Space Basel and the ensemble Zone Expérimentale. There she studies with Marcus Weiss, Mike Svoboda, Sarah-Maria Sun and Yaron Deutsch.
In 2020, she received the Scholarship for Talent and Creativity from the foundation Casino Barrière Montreux, due to her interest in language, communication and musical analysis that joins her passion for the violin. She also received the support of numerous associations like Crescendo con la Música, Zaczkowski Stiftung, Geert und Lore Blanken-Schlemper Stiftung, DOMS Stiftung and Lyra Stiftung, among others.
María Alejandra Jiménez 