Isabel Villanueva: Ritual

28 October 2024. 7:00 pm
Budapest Music Center - Concert Hall
1093 Budapest, Mátyás utca 8.

Hailed by The Strad as “an artist who risks” and described by Pizzicato Magazine as “a sensitive artist who knows how to immerse in the depths of music”, her passion for promoting the viola combined with her charismatic and expressive performances, and her beauty of sound, make Isabel Villanueva one of the most valued and complete violists of today.

Since her debut at 18 performing Bartók's Viola Concerto with the Radio Television Spanish Symphony Orchestra, she has developed an global career. She is regularly invited as a soloist with orchestras performing a wide range of repertoire including more than 30 viola concertos from baroque to contemporary music. Solo performances include important venues and festivals such as the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Royal Court Theatre in Copenhagen, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, and Wigmore Hall in London. She has been involved in collaborating and premiering more than 20 new works for viola, many of which are dedicated to her.

2023 saw the release of her second album, Ritual for viola solo. Comprising music over 1000 years from Hildegard von Bingen to György Kurtág, it has quickly got attention from media and was nominated to the prestigious ICMA Awards 2024 as “Best Instrumental Solo”. She presents this material in a concert that reveals the intersections of silence, sound and transcendence, and offers a unique opportunity to experience music as a sacred and transformative rite.