The International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation has nominated flamenco dancer Maria Pagés for the Fundacion Princesa de Asturias 2022 Prize in Spain. This nomination was accepted together with that of the singer Carmen Linares.

The Princess of Asturias Foundation convenes the Princess of Asturias Awards, which are presented annually in Oviedo, the capital of the Principality, in a solemn academic ceremony attended by the King and Queen of Spain, Reina Sofía and Princesses Leonor and Sofía. Princess Leonor presented the prizes of her Foundation to the winners who have distinguished themselves in the fields of the arts, social sciences, communication and humanity, concord, international cooperation, scientific and technical research, sport and literature.

Each laureate was then announced and seated on either side of the royal dais. This year’s winners of the Princess of Asturias Award 2022 were Carmen Linares and Maria Pagés, who won the Arts Award for “modernising and adapting the essence of flamenco in the contemporary world, elevating it even further to the category of universal art”. The two artists then performed a magnificent duet combining song and dance in the most traditional flamenco interpretation on the stage of the Campoamor Theatre. See a video from the performance here.  

In 1997, Yehudi Menuhin and Mstislav Rostropovich won the Concord Prize in the same prestigious setting and collected it together on stage.