Location: UCF Art Gallery
Violin Concert Feb. 16 at 7.30 pm.
Violinist Nicole Paglialonga enjoys a diverse career as a recitalist, orchestral musician, teacher, and community builder.
Ms. Paglialonga has performed in Asia, Europe, South America, and throughout North America. Recent highlights include performances at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, as well as concerts in Thailand and Colombia. Her performance of Mark Phillips’ Violin Power at the 2015 Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in America was a highlight of the event and was later selected to be included in a commercial release celebrating the conference.
As an orchestral musician, Ms. Paglialonga is currently a member of the Roanoke Symphony, Opera Roanoke, and in the summer months performs with the Ash Lawn Opera Orchestra in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has appeared with numerous other orchestras including the Charleston Symphony (SC), Florida Orchestra, Opera Tampa, Orlando Philharmonic, and Sarasota Orchestra, among others.
Ms. Paglialonga has also worked extensively in the commercial music industry across a wide variety of genres. While living in Florida, she frequently worked for the Walt Disney Company and appeared alongside legendary performers such as Seal, Styx, Clay Aiken, Idina Menzel and Johnny Mathis (with whom she toured on multiple occasions).
Currently, Ms. Paglialonga serves on the faculty at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her responsibilities there include serving as the Director of the Virginia Tech String Project, a program involving approximately 200 area string students, as well as teaching courses in musicology. She has also been on the string faculty at Bethune-Cookman University, Bluefield College, Patel Conservatory, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
Ms. Paglialonga is particularly passionate about bringing classical music to traditionally underserved communities. In 2013, in cooperation with the Radford City Schools District, she founded the Radford Youth Strings to expand the musical opportunities for local students. As a board member for the Friends of the Roanoke Symphony, she organizes the Smiles Outreach Series, which sponsors approximately a dozen performances by nationally recognized professional musicians in area public schools. She also recently launched a new initiative with St. Albans Psychiatric Hospital called “Music for Mental Health,” which provides therapeutic music to patients.