At the age of three she began to study the piano under the direction of her mother, Francesca Rodón. In Barcelona she initially took lessons with Frank Marshall and later with Enrique Granados, who considered her his favorite student. Later she resided in Paris, where she was a pupil of Isidor Philipp.
At the age of five she already showed exceptional piano skills and gave her first concert in Barcelona. At the age of eleven she had a great success at the Palau de la Música Catalana and in 1913 made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 1915 she traveled to New York to tour the country. There she lived with her mother between 1915 and 1919, a time when she recorded piano rolls. She was announced by the American press as the "Mozart of Spain" and the critic said: "she is extremely talented, possesses a powerful touch and a well-developed technique, and she will undoubtedly be one of the important artists of the future."
On April 27, 1922 she married the Uruguayan Arturo Puig, deputy and director of the newspaper “La Democracia”, and quit music. When being widowed in 1933, she reappeared in Barcelona as a soloist, with the Orquestra Pau Casals and with the Orquestra de la Societat Filharmònica de Barcelona with the violinist Joan Manén. In 1935 she remarried, with guitarist Andrés Segovia. They lived in Barcelona, Switzerland and Italy. From 1937 they resided in Montevideo. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco dedicated to them the Fantasy for Guitar and Piano (1950). During their marriage they both devoted themselves intensely to the study of their instruments, playing together and presenting in public several works such as the "Concerto in Re" for guitar and orchestra by Castelnuovo Tedesco and the "Concierto del Sur" by Manuel M. Ponce. In 1943 the union with Segovia was broken up and this one went to New York.
In 1953 she presented herself again as a pianist in various concerts in Barcelona, in one of which she premiered the Mario Castelonuovo-Tedesco Piano Concerto with the Orquestra Municipal de Barcelona conducted by Eduard Toldrà. As a composer she wrote several piano works composed during her adolescence, songs and a piece for guitar.
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Paquita Madriguera Archive in the Arxiu Comarcal de l´AnoiaComposition Prize Paquita Madriguera
PERFORMED WORKS
Pastoral, for piano
