WFIU's Artist of the Month for October is cellist Emilio Colón, associate professor of music at the IU Jacobs School of Music.
Before beginning a master's degree at Indiana University, Emilio Colón received his bachelor's from Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music where he won the Pablo Casals Medal upon graduation. During his time at IU, he studied with Janos Starker and served as Starker's teaching assistant before joining the faculty of IU.
Colón serves on the faculty of music festivals in Texas and California, and he has also taught courses at the Paris Conservatoire, the Geneva Conservatoire, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and Toho Gakuen in Tokyo, Japan. He is Executive Vice President of the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at Indiana University.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Colón played with the Emile Beaux Jeux Piano Trio, and from 1996 to 1998 he was a member of the faculty at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, where he performed throughout Florida as a member of the string Trio Vizcaya. Currently he is a member of the Amadé Piano Trio, in residence at Florida Atlantic University.
As a concert cellist, Mr. Colón has toured giving recitals, master classes, and playing as a soloist with orchestras in Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the United States.
He has conducted the Indiana University Cello Ensemble in annual programs featuring mainstream cello ensemble music, as well as his own acclaimed arrangements that have been performed by other ensembles around the world.
Colón has made solo and chamber recordings for the Enharmonic, Zephyr, Lyras and Klavier labels, and was recently featured as performer, arranger and composer on Klavier's recent release of "Obseción."
WFIU will feature music performed by Emilio Colón throughout the month of October.