Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has received international praise as a “rising star” (BBC Music Magazine), an “amazing talent” (maestro Gustavo Dudamel) and “a paragon of delicacy” (San Francisco’s Classical Voice). His playing has been described as “explosive” (Gramophone), “electric and virtuosic” (The Strad).
A native of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands of Spain, Francisco is making a name for himself as both a performer and a leader of innovative educational institutions. As an orchestral soloist he has performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Bayerische Philharmonie led by the late Sir Colin Davis, the Sibelius Concerto with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and the Brahms Violin Concerto with Venezuela’s Teresa Carreño Orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. He has also soloed with the Vancouver, Pacific, Alabama, Maryland, Madrid Symphonies as well as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Spanish Radio Television Orchestra, and has worked with such noted conductors as Hans Graf, Carlos Izcaray, Alondra de la Parra, Christoph Poppen, Jeannette Sorrell, and Joshua Weilerstein.
Active as a chamber musician, Francisco has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and its Musicians from Marlboro tours, as well as Yellow Barn, the Perlman Music Program, the Da Camera Society, and the Music@Menlo, Mainly Mozart, Music in the Vineyards, and Newport music festivals. His musical collaborators have included Midori, Viviane Hagner, Nobuko Imai, Charles Neidich, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Pacifica, Takács, and Cleveland quartets. And among the many chamber music engagements on his upcoming schedule, Francisco is part of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Highlights of Francisco’s recent and upcoming orchestral engagements include debuts with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonía, and Argentina’s National Orchestra. Also scheduled are return engagements with the Alabama, Balearic Islands, Extremadura, and Xalapa symphonies. Recital debuts this upcoming season also include the Phillips Collection and Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, as well as a tour of eastern China and Japan. Francisco’s ongoing collaboration with Argentinian bandoneonist/composer J.P. Jofre culminated with the world and European premieres of Jofre’s Concerto for Bandoneon and Violin No. 2, a work commissioned by the Balearic Islands Symphony, San Antonio Chamber Orchestra, and New York City’s Metropolis Ensemble.