Emilio Colón

Acclaimed as a passionate and virtuosic performer, Emilio Colón is highly sought after as a solo cellist, chamber musician, conductor, composer and pedagogue. An extensive international career has taken him to Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Malta, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. In the coming year, concert engagements will take him throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Most recent appearances include guest conductor and soloist of the Classical Symphony Orchestra of Guatemala, The Texas Festival Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, the Orquesta de Camara Concerto in Puerto Rico, Barge Music in New York City; concerts at the Casals Festival of Prades and recital tours of Malta, Italy, Holland, Korea and Japan. His recordings are featured on the Enharmonic, Centaur, Zephyr, and Lyras labels. Colón currently records for Klavier as solo cellist, chamber musician, conductor, and composer under the label. As the second youngest faculty member to be appointed in the history of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Colón has since established himself as one of the leading pedagogues in the country. He has offered courses at the Paris Conservatoire, the Geneva Conservatoire, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea and Toho Gakuen in Tokyo, Japan. He is also on faculty at the International Festival-Institute at Round Top in Texas, Chamber Music Unbound at the Mammoth Lakes Music Festival in California and resident cellist for the Fundación Musical de Ponce “Serie de Grandes Interpretes” in Puerto Rico. Colón’s debut as a recorded composer took place with his ta”N”go for piano trio as featured on Trio Amadé’s recording “Obseción.” Recent performance highlights of his compositions include the premiere of Recuerdos de Tata for cello & orchestra with Colón as soloist as well as the premieres of Colón’s 2007 commissions, Dana la Colorá’ for Double bass & Piano, Los Niños y las Minarets for Piano Trio, and Los Jolgoriosos for Violin & Piano. Colón’s arrangements, editions and original compositions are published by Masters Music Publications and H.P. Music Publications. An active chamber musician, Colón played with the Emile Beaux Jeux Piano Trio, which won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a sponsorship from Chamber Music America for two consecutive residencies. Colón was a member of the faculty at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, where he performed throughout Florida as a member of the string trio, Trio Vizcaya. He was also the cellist of Trio Amadé, the resident ensemble at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, where he was a Dorothy F. Chandler Schmidt Eminent Scholar in Music. A native of Puerto Rico, Colón received a bachelor’s degree from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music as a student of Joaquín Vidaechea, where he won the Pablo Casals Medal upon graduation. As a student and teaching assistant to the distinguished cellist and pedagogue Janos Starker, Colón earned a master’s degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He won first prize at the Las Americas Festival Solo Competition as well as the Indiana University’s Concerto Competition. Colón plays on a J.B. Vuillaume Cello from 1844 and a Dominique Peccatte bow.