Maria Teresa Naranjo Ochoa

Maria Teresa Naranjo Ochoa (1931, Tuxpan, Jalisco – 2007, Madrid) was a Mexican virtuoso pianist and teacher.After initial studies in Guadalajara (with Manuel de Jesús Aréchiga and Áurea Corona), and in Mexico City’s Conservatorio Nacional de Música (with Joaquín Amparán Cortés, Carlos Vazquez, and Guillermo Salvador), she moved to Paris in 1963, where she became a foremost student of legendary French-Brazilian pianist Magda Tagliaferro and of her assistant, French-Canadian pianist Christiane Sénart (1916 - 2010).

As a pedagogue, she is widely known for having been one of the main teachers of Spanish virtuoso pianist Josu de Solaun Soto.

During her performing career, she played as concerto soloist with all of the main Mexican orchestras, under the batons of Iosif Conta, Leslie Hodge, Alejandro Kahan, Abel Eisenberg, Helmut Goldmann, Eduardo Mata, José Guadalupe Flores, Kenneth Klein, Hugo Jan Huss, Salvador Contreras, Francisco Orozco, José Rodríguez Frausto, Manuel de Elías, Luis Ximénez Caballero, and Arturo Javier González, among many others, playing concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Franck, Rachmaninov, Gershwin, Halffter, Albéniz, and Ponce.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, she toured the United States, Europe, and the former USSR, participating actively with the OPIC (Organismo de Promoción Internacional de Cultura) and frequently representing Mexico at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, showcasing many contemporary Mexican works for piano, in particular those by Carlos Chávez, Alfredo Carrasco, Hermilio Hernández and José Pablo Moncayo.

Her interpretations of the French, Spanish (especially Albéniz, De Falla, and Mompou), Brazilian (Villa-Lobos), and Mexican repertoire (Chávez, Ponce, Villanueva, Carrasco, Moncayo), were highly praised by the press.