Emilio W. Colón

A native of Puerto Rico, cellist Emilio W. Colón received a bachelor's degree from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music in 1986, where he won the Pablo Casals Medal upon graduation. As a student and teaching assistant to the distinguished cellist and pedagogue Janos Starker, Mr. Colón earned a master's degree from the Indiana University School of Music in 1989. He won first prize at the Las Americas Festival Solo Competition as well as at Indiana University's Concerto Competition.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Colón played with the Emile Beaux Jeux Piano Trio, which won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Sponsorship from Chamber Music America for two consecutive residencies: at Upper Iowa University for the 1993-94 season, and at Iowa's Hawkeye Community College and Jesup Community Schools for the 1994-95 season. From 1996 to 1998 Mr. Colón 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 soloist with orchestras in Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the United States. His recordings are featured on the Enharmonic, Zephyr, and Lyras labels. As conductor, Mr. Colón has led 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. He is an assistant professor of music at Indiana University (the youngest member of the faculty and the second youngest in the history of the school) and the Executive Vice President of the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center Foundation.

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