Francisco Fullana

Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been hailed as a "rising star" (BBC Music Magazine), an "amazing talent" (conductor Gustavo Dudamel) and "frighteningly awesome" (Buffalo News).

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.

Highlights of Francisco’s recent and upcoming orchestral engagements include debuts with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Tucson, Miami and Springfield Symphony Orchestras, Oviedo Filarmonía, and Argentina’s National Orchestra. Recital debuts this season also include the Phillips Collection, Mecklenburg-Vorlpommen Festival and Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, as well as a two tours of eastern China and Japan. He is the new artist in residence of the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of ‘Lincoln Center in Mallorca’ summer festival.

Orchid Classics recently released Francisco’s recording “Through the Lens of Time,” which includes Max Richter’s composition The Four Seasons Recomposed performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carlos Izcaray. Francisco’s new album, Bach’s Long Shadow, will be released by Orchid next June, featuring historically informed performances of Bach’s Partitas, Ysaye and Albeniz among others.

Born into a family of educators, Francisco is a committed innovator, leading new institutions of musical education for young people. He is the co-founder of San Antonio’s Classical Music Summer Institute, where he currently serves as Chamber Music Director, and the founder of the Fortissimo Youth Initiative, collaborating in performance with youth orchestras around the world.

He currently performs on the 1735 "Mary Portman" ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, kindly on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.