Josu De Solaun has been recognized by critics such as Nikolaus Frey (Fuldaer Zeitung) for his “poetic sense of sound, bold artistic vision and brilliant virtuoso skills, always and totally at the service of the works he interprets”.

On two occasions, he has been awarded the prestigious International Classical Music Awards (ICMA): in 2021, in the chamber music category, and in 2023, as best solo artist. In the 2023 edition, the ICMA jury expressed the following about him: “Josu de Solaun is one of the most impressive discoveries of the past decade. Not only is he a technically impressive pianist, but his interpretive imagination knows no bounds either. His interpretations ideally reflect De Solaun's ability to engage with works symbiotically and at the highest energy levels. Free from aesthetic dogmas, the pianist creates cosmos out of a solitary nature.”

He is also the only Spanish pianist to have won first prizes in the José Iturbi (2006) and George Enescu (2014) international piano competitions, since its founding in 1980 and 1958 respectively. The Enescu Competition was previously won by the pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja (in 1964) and Radu Lupu (in 1967).

In 2019, Klaus Iohannis, president of Romania, appointed him Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of the Republic of Romania for his artistic work and international promotion of the music of George Enescu - whose complete work for piano he recorded on the NAXOS label - and of Romanian musical culture in general.

Trained at a young age by the musician Salvador Chuliá (in harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition) and by the pianists María Teresa Naranjo and Ana Guijarro in Spain and later in New York by pianists Nina Svetlanova (a student of Heinrich Neuhaus) and Horacio Gutiérrez, he has been allowed to show his musical art not only as a pianist at recitals but also as a composer and orchestra director, improviser (playing entirely improvised piano recitals), chamber musician and solo with orchestras. In New York, he also studied composition with Giampaolo Bracali and conducting with Robert Isaacs and David Gilbert, as well as chamber music with Robert Mann (of the Juilliard Quartet) and Isidore Cohen (of the Beaux Arts Trio).

Josu has also been praised by critics such as Jessica Duchen, who said in BBC Music Magazine: “De Solaun allows expression to lead at all times, no matter how intense the virtuosity is. There is always an elastic vitality in his interpretations, a warm and intimate approach to his phrasing and a beautiful and sweet tone.” And by critics such as Justo Romero, in Scherzo, who wrote: “It's hard to imagine a more powerful and creative pianism. De Solaun is one of the most interesting virtuosi of the contemporary keyboard. Spanish and not Spanish. A vigorous, wise pianism, with refined workmanship and great musicality. We are faced with a true colossus of the piano, a true virtuoso, in the old fashioned way, who asserts his resplendent technique and the extroverted dramatic depth of his firm artistic nature to combine versions that combine brilliance and effusion, fire and delicacy, always with an intense pianistic foundation, all with naturalness, strength, power, sound opulence and intense expressive sense.”

He has played as a soloist with the National Orchestra of Spain, RTVE Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Rudolf Barshai Chamber Orchestra of Moscow, RTE Orchestra of Dublin, National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, Philharmonic of Mexico City, National Symphony of Mexico, Phoenix Orchestra of Venice, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest, Orchestra of Radio Bucharest, Orchestra of Radio of Prague and almost all Spanish orchestras, collaborating with conductors such as Giancarlo Guerrero, Justus Frantz, Rumon Gamba, JoAnn Falletta, Constantine Orbelian, Christian Badea, Paul Daniel, Enrique Garcia Asensio, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Laurence Equilbey, Rossen Milanov, Yaron Traub, Alexis Soriano, Jonathan Pasternack, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez and Ramón Tebar.

Josu, who lived in Manhattan, New York from 1999 to 2019, graduated from the Manhattan School of Music (1999 - 2011) and was later Professor of Piano at S. Houston State University (2014 - 2018). Since February 2020, he has been living in Madrid with his wife and son.

As a composer, he recently premiered his Concertino Breve (2023) for piano and string orchestra in Klaipeda, Lithuania, with the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Alexis Soriano-Monstavicius.

In August 2023, he recorded Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 3 with the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra for the IBS Classical label.

Soon, he will also release an album on ARIA Classics of Richard Strauss's Burlesque as well as the two Liszt Piano Concertos and Totentanz, with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Pasternack.

He teaches piano at the Escuela Superior Musical Arts Madrid (MAM) where he trains a small group of students and where he develops his intense pedagogical vocation.

Josu is also a poet and in 2021, his collection of poems Las Grietas was published by the publisher Edictoralia.

Josu is a representative of IBERKONZERT, with whom he has been working since 2011.