Piano

Dr. Rubén E. Peláez was born in Camagüey, Cuba in 1963. He began piano lessons with his mother at the age of six. He continued his studies at the music school in his native province and graduated with degrees in music and piano from the National School of Arts in Havana.

Dr. Peláez immigrated to the United States in 1987 and settled in Miami where he had further lessons with Cuban pianist Teresa Escandón. It was around this time that he entered a number of international piano competitions including the Marguerite Long in Paris and the Palm Beach Invitational Competition where he was a finalist.

He has performed extensively in solo recitals and concerts in the United States, Europe and Cuba. Performances in New York include the famous Spanish Cultural Institute in Manhattan, and in Washington, D.C. include the Phillips Collection Museum, Anderson House Museum, the Department of the Treasury, The Kennedy Center, The Netherland Embassy, Mount Vernon College, and The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America and The American University’s Katzen Arts Center among others. Peláez has also appeared at a number of venues in Florida, including Miami and Palm Beach. He has also appeared several times as a soloist with orchestras both in Cuba and in the U.S.A. He has given recital lectures and attended master classes with such pianists as Andre Watts and Jorge Luis Prats.

In November 1996 his first album, the only complete collection of all 41 Danzas for piano by Ignacio Cervantes, was released by ELAN Recordings. One of these pieces was selected and used in the 2001
film, Original Sin.

Peláez completed his doctorate in music in 1998 at the University of Maryland in College Park, where he studied on full scholarship as a pupil of the well-known pianist Santiago Rodriguez, and he completed his undergraduate studies at the Higher Institute of Arts of Cuba with the famous pianist Jorge Luis Prats.

He is currently an adjunct faculty professor at University of Maryland Global Campus where he has been teaching since 2012. He is also a faculty member of the International School of Music in Bethesda, Maryland, where he is currently teaching online.

Other notable musical achievements include arranging and performing music for documentaries about his native land, and the world premier recording of Ignacio Cervantes’ Dances for Piano.

Dr. Pelaez is great, I’m excited about my progress in such a short time. He is passionate about piano and is very enthusiastic about my improvements. The studio seems well run on the whole. I appreciate the easy online payment and well equipped facility. Communication has also been easy, especially when I had to reschedule a lesson.
– Jeff M.