Francesco Viola is piccolo soloist of the Nationaltheater in Mannheim and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.
He has collaborated with some of Europe's leading orchestras such as the Teatro alla Scala, SWR Symphonie Orchester Stuttgart, Bamberg Symphoniker, Oper Frankfurt, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Oper Mainz, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Heidelberger Philarmoniker, Arena di Verona, led by conductors of recognized artistic depth such as Metha, Luisi, Gatti, Santi, Oren, Currentzis, Valcuha, Järvi, Ranzani, Rustioni, Renzetti, Xavier Roth, Neuhold, Kovatchev, Jurowski, Janowski, etc.
He was a member of the Tiroler Festpiele Erl Orchestra in Austria, on invitation of principal conductor Gustav Kuhn, with whom he participated in a long China tour dedicated to the Wagner Ring.
He was a member of the Orchester de Jeunes de la Méditerranée Provence-Alpes - Côte d'Azur, twinned with the London Symphony Orchestra.
As a piccolo specialist, he is regularly invited to conservatories, music universities and international flute festivals to give masterclasses and recitals.
His most recent teaching position was visiting flute professor at Conservatorio "A. Scarlatti" in Palermo.
In 2015 he was first prize winner at the "Severino Gazzelloni" Competition for the "Piccolo" category.
Accompanied on the piano by Aurelia Vişovan, in 2015 he recorded an album including music by Corelli, Saint-Saens, Silcher, Krähmer and the reduction for piano and piccolo of Andreas Baksa's "Grande Concerto Piccolo". The composer (1950-2015), who arranged the score for piano in occasion of the recording, took an active part in it, discussing and ultimately approving the interpretive choices proposed by Viola, who recently recorded the world premiere of the original version for orchestra. The latter was included in a new album, soon to be released by Naxos Records, along with three other piccolo concertos by composers from Eastern Europe.
Francesco began the flute studies with Claudio Marinone, at the State Conservatory of Music "V. Bellini" (now "A. Scarlatti") in Palermo, where he graduated with top marks in 2007. He then attended the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna under the guidance of Raphael Leone and the Conservatoire National de Region "Pierre Barbizet" in Marseille with Jean-Louis Beaumadier, obtaining the Premier Prix, le 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.
