Grammy-nominated violinist/conductor Andres Cardenes will return to the Valley Isle for the Maui Classical Music Festival, which starts Friday with a concert at the Makawao Union Church. Photo courtesy Andres Cardenes

Andrés Cárdenes was 9 years old when he was first mesmerized by the sound of the violin.

“My father brought home a recording of Paganini’s first violin concerto,” he recalled. “And I said to my father, ‘Listen to all those violin players.’ My dad said, ‘No, that’s one guy.’ That blew me away. I was in shock that one violinist could play all those notes. A few months later, a lady came to my elementary school and started a music program. When I walked in the door, I went straight to the violin, and like a bolt of lightning, I knew that was going to be my life’s work. I knew that was what I was going to do.”

The Cuban-born, Grammy-nominated violinist/conductor is returning to play at the Maui Classical Music Festival, which starts Friday and runs through May 21, after a long absence.

“This is my first foray back in about 10 years,” said Cárdenes. “I did it for all the years it was in Kapalua.”

Grateful for the opportunity to once again perform on Maui, he said, “from the moment I step off the plane and smell the salt air and the flowers, it instantly changes me. And then to go and make incredible music with incredible musicians and incredible friends, there’s just nothing better in the whole world. When you’re making music at that level with really close friends, there’s a camaraderie and a certain kind of connection, and that makes it something extraordinary.”

Opening on Friday at the Makawao Union Church, the 2023 chamber festival features a celebrated ensemble of musicians including violist and music director Yizhak Schotten; cellists Robert deMaine and Amir Eldan; pianists Katherine Collier, Rohan de Silva and Grammy winner Cory Smythe; Grammy-nominated flutist Tara Helen O’Connor; Daniel Phillips on violin and viola; and violinist Susie Park.

The musicians will perform works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Antonin Dvorak, Francesco Geminiani, Melanie Bonis, Johnannes Brahms, Charles-Marie Widor and Manuel de Falla.

Cárdenes will first play on Monday at the historic Iao Theater in a “Grace to Grandeur” program which includes Dvorak’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81. The May 17 concert at the Wananalua Congregational Church in Hana, and the final concert at Iao Theater on May 21, will include Cárdenes playing Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op.111. On May 19 at the Keawala’i Congregational Church in Makena, he will be among the musicians playing Dvorak’s Terzetto in C Major for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 74.

“The Dvorak Terzetto is for two violins and viola,” he explained. “It’s a wonderful folksy piece. It’s much typical of Dvorak, he uses a lot of Bohemian-style melodies. It’s not often that you find pieces for two violins and viola. Generally, you play string trios or string quartets.

“The Dvorak Quintet is one of my most favorite chamber music pieces,” he added. “I absolutely adore it. I never get tired of playing it. It’s just incredible music, incredible tunes throughout, and it’s quite a pretty big piece. It’s a good 35-minute long piece, and it’s quite challenging technically and musically. It has some great cello solos in it, and a great viola solo. It is a masterpiece. I’d say if you had to check off the 25 top chamber music pieces, that would be among them.”

The Brahms String Quintet was intended to be his last piece of music. First performed in Vienna in 1890, it created a sensation.

“The Brahms Violin Quintet in G major is tremendously passionate and symphonic,” Cárdenes said. “There’s no piano, and it’s all string play. But the way Brahms voices everything and the way he writes, it sounds like a big string symphony. It doesn’t sound like chamber music.”

Cárdenes said that everything Brahms wrote “was dense and big and thick and beautiful and sonorous.”

“His music is just so fulfilling to play. You just feel so good. It’s like taking a bath in chocolate. I think if you ask a hundred musicians what they most enjoy playing, probably 90 percent of them would say that their favorite thing to actually play is Brahms.”

Throughout his career, Cárdenes has garnered acclaim for his solo violin, conducting, viola, chamber music, concertmaster and recorded performances. Since capturing the second prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, he has appeared as soloist with many orchestras and is in great demand as a conductor.

As a recording artist, he has interpreted concerti by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Barber. A distinguished professor of violin at Carnegie Mellon University, he has been the violinist of the Díaz Trio since 1995 and the Carnegie Mellon Trio since 1989.

On the power of music to enthrall and move people, he said: “I always tell my students, why it’s so important to play your best, put out your best, and commit yourself to every note that you play in front of people. People come to hear you, and you don’t know what’s going on in their life. You don’t know if they’ve suffered a loss, if there’s a loved one that’s in trouble, or they need to get away from their work because they’re so stressed out. They’ve got two hours of their life they’re giving to you. And your obligation is to bring something to them, to let them forget whatever troubles, whatever stress, whatever is going on in their life. Let them forget it for two hours. That’s like being reborn. You give them two hours of peace, calm, beauty, sensitivity, connection, emotion and excitement. It’s a gift to be able to do that.”

The 2023 Maui Classical Music Festival is presented Friday through May 21. Concerts begin at 7 p.m. Friday at the Makawao Union Church, Monday at the historic Iao Theater and May 19 at Keawala’i Congregational. The Hana concert on May 17 begins at 6 p.m., and the finale at the historic Iao Theater on May 21 begins at 5 p.m. Tickets are $30 per concert for adults and $10 for students, available at www.mauiclassicalmusicfestival.org.