JOSUÉ PLUA TRUJILLO

4TH POI COMPOSITION COMPETITION

winner

Theme and Variations on a Danzante

Josué Plúa (b. 2004) is an Ecuadorian pianist, composer, and orchestral transcriber. Born into a family of musicians, he began playing the piano at the age of four and has performed in major venues in Ecuador, Spain, and Colombia, including Casa de la Música and Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito, Teatro Centro de Arte in Guayaquil, and Teatro Infanta Leonor in Jaén. He has collaborated with conductors such as Emmanuel Siffert, David Harutyunyan, Luis Castro, Iñigo Pirfano, Lorena Suárez, Alejandro Posada, Matthew Westgate, among others. In 2023 he became a scholarship recipient of the FEST & ARTS project supporting young talents. As a composer, he received second prize in the 2025 Ecuadorian Composers Competition organized by the National Symphony Orchestra with his orchestral work Cantos Fúnebres. In 2026 he traveled to Cologne, Germany, where he assisted in a concert by Martha Argerich and Darío Ntaca, and later attended the Weltmusik intensive course in Switzerland. He has participated in several international festivals and competitions, including the International Pianissimo Festival in Medellín, the Jaén International Piano Competition in Spain, and the Quito International Piano Festival. In 2025 he won first prize in the Young Soloists Competition of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador, performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto as a soloist. He has received masterclasses from distinguished pianists such as Oleg Poliansky, Boris Cepeda, Carlos Juris, Washington García, Juan Pablo Barahona, Ellen Somer, among others. Josué currently studies at the Central University of Ecuador under the guidance of Andrés Torres.