ArtistInfo

Roberto Diaz

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Musician / Composer / Conductor of Classical

Classical viola player. The violist Roberto Díaz is president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music. As a soloist, he collaborates with leading conductors and composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki, whose Viola Concerto he has performed many times with the composer and whose Double Concerto he premièred in the United States. In addition to performing with string quartets and pianists in chamber music series and festivals worldwide, Díaz has toured Europe, Asia and the Americas as a member of the Díaz Trio. His tenure at Curtis has seen the construction of a new building that doubled the size of the school’s campus, the introduction of a classical guitar department, the launch of summer courses open to the public, and the launch of an international touring series for students, Curtis on Tour. Díaz was awarded an honorary membership by the National Board of the American Viola Society. In 2013 he became a member of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin. In addition to his decade-long tenure as principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Díaz was principal viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner. Díaz plays the ex-Primrose Amati viola.