Mannheim Nationaltheater, Mannheim, DE
Francesco Viola began studying Flute in 2001 with Claudio Marinone, at the “V. Bellini” State Conservatory of Music in Palermo, where in 2007 he graduated with honors. He then attended the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien under the guidance of Raphael Leone and the Conservatoire National de Region “Pierre Barbizet” de Marseille with Jean-Louis Beaumadier, obtaining the Premier Prix, the Mentions spécialisé trés bien à l’unanimité and the Grand Prix de la Ville de Marseille, in 2010 for Piccolo and in 2011 for Flute.
In 2015 he was the winner of the first prize at the “Severino Gazzelloni” Competition, held in Roccasecca for the “Piccolo” category, organized by the Italian Flautists Association. He has recorded, for the Falaut collection, a CD, in his own name, for piccolo and piano, with music by Corelli, Saint-Saens, Silcher, Krähmer and, for the first time, with the reduction for piano and piccolo (set up by the composer himself) of Andreas Baksa’s “Grande Concerto Piccolo” (1950-2015), who attended the recording of the same, discussing and finally approving the interpretative choices proposed by Viola.
He has collaborations with some of the major orchestras, such as those of the Teatro alla Scala, SWR Symphonie Orchester Stuttgart, Oper Frankfurt, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Oper Mainz, San Carlo Theater of Naples, Massimo Theater of Palermo, Heidelberger Philarmoniker , Arena di Verona, led, from time to time, by conductors of great artistic depth such as Metha, Luisi, Santi, Kuhn, Oren, Valcuha, Järvi, Ranzani, Rustioni, Renzetti, Pehlivanian, Kovatchev, Gomez, Roth, Jurowski, Janowski, Coleman and Bockman. He was also a member of the Tiroler Festpiele Erl Orchestra in Austria, at the invitation of the principal conductor Gustav Kuhn with whom he took part in a long tour in China dedicated to the Wagnerian Ring, and of the Orchester de Jeunes de la Méditerranée Provence-Alpes -Côte d’Azur, twinned with the London Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2011.
In 2017 he won the competition at the Mannheim Nationaltheater holding the position of Piccolo Solo. He often holds master classes in Europe and plays regularly with various chamber music groups.