Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner
piano
At just 18 years-old, Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner was named the 2014 Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded every two years singling out the most promising American pianists of the new generation. He received the Atlantic Council’s 2014 Young Global Citizen Award, along with fellow recipients Robert De Niro, Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Lee Kuan Yew, and Presidents Enrique Pena Nieto and Petro Poroshenko.
Llewellyn made Juilliard history at age 14 as the youngest-ever admittee to the College Division. In 2009, he performed solo at the White House for President Obama; and in 2013, for the Presidential Inauguration concert at the Kennedy Center.
In 2010, he was the first American soloist to perform in Iraq with the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra for an international audience of diplomats, US soldiers, and Iraqis of all ages (Gershwin and Grieg Concerti). The concert raised funds to support the Children’s Cancer Hospital and celebrated World Day for Cultural Diversity.
In Rwanda, Llewellyn performed for President Kagame and for humanitarian and economic leaders, hosted by US Ambassador Symington, to help Rwandans continue rebuilding from the 1994 genocide. CNN International featured him on “Connect the World” as the Connector of the Day on May 31, 2010.
General David Petraeus recognized Llewellyn “for his courageous humanitarian contributions through the arts” and for “strengthening the ties that unite our nations,” in a Pentagon performance. To excite more youth about classical music, Llewellyn performed 16 concerts for 20,000 North American students; for an anti-bullying campaign, he performed “Beethoven and the Bully” for 6,000 students.
He has had hundreds of solo recitals and over fifty performances as soloist with orchestras on 4 continents, including at Smetana Hall, Prague, Czech Republic; Louvre Museum, Paris, France; Gijon International Piano Festival, Spain; Ashford Castle, Ireland; Banff Summer Arts Festival, Canada; the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; and Lincoln Center, New York.
For a WDR-Arte Documentary, Hilan Warshaw’s “Wagner’s Jews” (which explores the ongoing controversy over performing Wagner’s music in Israel), Llewellyn was filmed in New York performing works of Tausig, Wagner, and Liszt. Llewellyn has also collaborated with the Gershwin Family on a concert and biographical tribute to the Gershwin brothers.
As part of Beyond the Machine, he performed modern multimedia works in collaboration with Juilliard’s Technology Center, Dance, and Drama Divisions. Featured in the Miami International Piano Festival’s “Prodigies and Masters of Tomorrow,” at 7, he was selected the youngest-ever Discovery Artist of the New West Symphony, and at 12, he was the Artist-in-Residence at the Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival in New York.
Juilliard is Llewellyn’s second college experience. He became a full-time student at Ventura College at age 5, where he completed 170 college credits toward degrees in Music and International Relations. Born in California, Llewellyn studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Ilya Itin in New York.