Margot Rojas Mendoza

Pianist and pedagogue. She performed in two-piano recitals with Ernesto Lecuona and Margot de Blanck.

She was born in Veracruz, Mexico on March 24, 1903. She began her studies in her native city with Consuelo Mendoza.

In 1912 she moved with her family to La Habana, where she continued her studies at the Hubert de Blanck Conservatory, with José Molina Torres and Rafaela Serrano in theoretical subjects, and piano with Consuelo Quesada and Hubert de Blanck; later she traveled to New York and there was a piano student of Alexander Lambert, the last student of Franz Liszt in Weimar.

She made her debut as a pianist in 1920, with a recital in the Espadero Hall, of the Hubert de Blanck Conservatory; on October 20, 1923 she performed at the National Theater, today the Gran Teatro de La Habana.

On November 30, 1924 she performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana, conducted by Pedro Sanjuán, when she performed the Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, by Polish composer Federico Chopin. She was the first soloist to perform with the Philharmonic.

Later she performed this same Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gonzalo Roig. At the Lyceum Lawn and Tennis Club she offered a cycle of historic concerts, and another of music by French composers at the National Theater.

On March 16, 1930 she premiered in Cuba the Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra by Russian composer Serguei Rachmaninov, accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of La Habana, under the direction of Gonzalo Roig.

Between 1933 and 1937, she resided in Mexico, and there she performed in the Hall of the National Conservatory, in the Palace of Fine Arts; she also performed at the Steinway Hall in New York.

She was a professor at:
The Hubert de Blanck Conservatories
International
Municipal of La Habana, today Amadeo Roldán
The National School of Art ENA

Among her students are:
Frank Fernández
Raúl Iglesias
Carmen Collado
María Felicia Pérez Arroyo
José María Vitier
Ileana Bautista
José Piñeiro Díaz

She died in La Habana, Cuba on November 1, 1996.