Ecuadorian-Spanish cellist Francisco Vila has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, South America and Europe. Vila’s curiosity for new music has paired him in collaboration with Grammy-Award winning composer Osvaldo Golijov, and Grammy-nominated composer/classical guitarist Apostolos Paraskevas. He has received instruction from cellists Aldo Parisot and Gary Hoffman at the Banff Centre and Mozarteum Sommerakademie festivals, respectively. Recent concert activities include such venues as Carnegie Hall as a member of the New York String Orchestra directed by Jaime Laredo, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and Disney Hall in Los Angeles with iPalpiti Artists International, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall with Apostolos Paraskevas in a performance of the composer/guitarist’s modern works, Dudley House at Harvard University, and Boston’s Seully Hall in recitals with pianist Sergey Schepkin. Vila has been the recipient of several honors including the Presidential Scholarship at The Boston Conservatory (Boston, Massachusetts), the National Society of Arts and Letters scholarship award for Performance (Bloomington, Indiana), the Olimpia Barbera and the Eva Heinitz Fund Scholarships at Indiana University, and also a prize in the Latin American Music Competition for a unique performance of Latin American and Spanish repertoire for solo cello. He studied chamber music with Menahem Pressler and the cello with Professors Janos Starker and Sharon Robinson at Indiana University where he was also the first-prize winner of the ’09-‘10 cello concerto competition. He was recently selected to be a part of Gary Hoffman’s new class in Manchester, England at the Royal Northern College of Music. Vila’s instrument is a 1770 Benjamin Banks cello crafted in Salisbury, England.
