American violist Arturo Ziraldo is an engaging performer who believes deeply in the power of art to change the world for the better. Mr. Ziraldo is known as an intensely passionate musician and sensitive chamber collaborator. As a supporter of new music he has performed and premiered works by John Kennedy, Keith Murphy, Peter Askim, Haruhito Miyagi, Brett Dean, Curtis Curtis-Smith and others.
As a soloist, Mr. Ziraldo has performed across the U.S. and Europe and was a semi-finalist at the Washington International Competition and the Maine International Competition. Mr. Ziraldo studied at the New England Conservatory, Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève, Roosevelt University CCPA and a Western Michigan University. His principal teachers were Roger Chase, Marcus Thompson and Igor Fedotov. He has performed in the Deer Valley, Kent/Blossom, Casalmaggiore International and Spoleto USA Festivals.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Ziraldo has worked in a wide variety of ensembles across the globe. He was the founder of The Battery string quartet which was featured as an elite emerging quartet at the Deer Valley Music Festival in 2013. Arturo has also performed in less standard combinations, such as duos with marimba, bass and flute, and has performed extensively in a flute, harp and viola trio. He has studied chamber music intensively with Roger Tapping, the Muir Quartet, Paul Katz and Shmuel Ashkenasi. Mr. Ziraldo has held the principal seat in many orchestras since age 19 including the International Chamber Soloists, The Southwest Michigan Symphony and the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestras. He performed as a member of the viola section of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland and is currently a member of the Kalamazoo Symphony. Mr. Ziraldo has been an invited guest performer for the Callisto Ensemble, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco, the Mainzer Virtuosi and and the vocal group “With One Voice”.
Mr. Ziraldo is an active teacher who maintains a private studio and gives college and high school masterclasses and clinics. He was also Professor of Viola in the Merit School of Music's prestigious Tuition Free Conservatory in Chicago.
Born in 1985, Mr. Ziraldo began his music studies on the cello at the age of ten, and began studying viola in 1997. He gave his first solo performance two years later. He performs on a viola by Scott Tribby, “anno 2005 in Kalamazoo, MI and a bow by D. William Halsey, 2012.