Gerardo Vila

Pianist Gerardo Vila has had a truly international career, performing and teaching across North and South America, the Caribbean, and western and eastern Europe. He is also a noted performer of tango and other distinctively Argentine music. Vila was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1964. He showed talent as a youngster and gave his first recital at 12. Vila was admitted to the Conservatorio Nacional de "Carlos López Buchardo" in Buenos Aires, Argentina's central national conservatory, studying piano with Maria Teresa Criscuolo and chamber music with Ljerko Spiller; he graduated in 1984 with special distinction. In 1980, Vila began a run of six competition victories, the last of which, the Vicente Scaramuzza Competition (1984), enabled him to travel to Europe in 1985 for further study. He worked with Maria Tipo at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland, taking the school's first prize in virtuosity, and attending the master class of Karl Engel at the Bern Music School and Conservatory from 1988 to 1990; he still lives in Bern. Vila continued to win major international prizes during this period. Vila has appeared as a concerto soloist with major orchestras across Europe, including the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a familiar face at festivals in Europe and South America, including those in Cannes, Lisbon, and Maracaibo. Vila is noted as a tango performer, accompanying the singer Milva and bandoneonist Daniel Binelli, and performing on piano and occasionally on flute with the group Tango 7. He is especially experienced as a teacher, leading master classes in countries as diverse as Aruba, Switzerland, and Romania. Vila has made several recordings, including one devoted to the music of tango composer Astor Piazzolla in 2001, and in 2020, a recording of the Violin Sonata of Philip Glass with violinist Piotr Plawner. ~ James Manheim