Francisco Vila
cello
Francisco Vila began playing the cello at age 8 and had his solo debut with orchestra at 14. Concert activities have taken him throughout Europe, North and South America. Performing collaborations have included those with artists such as Nobuko Imai, Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Wolfram Christ, Toby Hoffman, Sunwook Kim, Martin Chalifour, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet.
Vila has appeared as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, Aalborg Symfoniorkester, Liege Royal Philharmonic, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Santander Festival Orchestra, Indiana University Philharmonic, and all principal orchestras of his native Ecuador.
He has been a participant at the Ravinia Steans Institute and guest artist at the Beaumaris, Santander, and Stavelot music festivals among others. As a member of the iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates he performed in such venues as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, Mozarteum Salzburg, and on international tours.
Mr. Vila views teaching as an important aspect in music-making. In March of 2015, he founded and directs the International Music Festival of Esmeraldas (Ecuador) in his hometown. This is a social project that awards full-tuition scholarships to numerous gifted young talents from Central and South America for two weeks of masterclasses with some of the world’s great artists. For his work with this platform, Mr. Vila has received coveted grants from the US State Department, Tarisio Trust, and the Sphinx MPower Grant.
Vila was granted a Presidential Scholarship to the Boston Conservatory for his Bachelor studies, after which he received a Performance Diploma from Indiana University where he was a student of Janos Starker, Sharon Robinson and Menahem Pressler.
In 2012, he was selected to the inaugural cello class at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he earned an Artist Diploma under the famed cellist Gary Hoffman. In the same year he became the second-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition in Detroit Michigan.
Mr. Vila serves on the faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and performs on a fine cello crafted by Vincenzo Panormo in 1790 on generous life-term loan from the “Karl McNutt Family Trust” as well as the “ex-Janos Starker” Edward Tubbs bow.