Val's PIANO forte

Rodrigo Zafani Quintana started his career in music in Sorocaba in 2004. He attended Brazil's best institutions, including the Conservatory of Music and Drama, "Dr. Carlos de Campos" in Tatui, and the School of Music of the State of Sao Paulo. His primary teachers and mentors at those schools are Graziella Pagotto and Emmanuelle Baldini. Quintana has recently finished his Master's degree in music performance under the tutelage of Dr. Laura Talbott-Clark at Oklahoma State University. Rodrigo received the Patti Johnson Wilson Foundation Fellowship in String Orchestral Performance in 2021 with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Quintana has actively participated in many masterclasses and lessons with well- known teachers and artists, including Mikhail Kopelman (Eastman School of Music), Igor Petrutchevsky (Wagner Conservatory/ Vienna), Mauricio Fuks (Indiana University), and Rüdiger Liebermann (Berlin Philharmonic). He has also been active in the chamber music field, which allowed him to participate in masterclasses and workshops with The Pacifica String Quartet, Ariel String Quartet, American String Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, and Dali String Quartet.

Rodrigo has played in the main concert halls, including Sao Paulo Hall and the Opera House of Sao Paulo. As a member of the Youth Orchestra of Sao Paulo, he received a fellowship that allowed him to tour with the orchestra in Germany twice in 2012 and 2013, where he played in the main concert halls, including the Konzerthaus Berlin. Quintana has been a member of several professional orchestras in the United States since 2014. During his bachelor's and Master's degrees, he mainly was permanently appointed as the concertmaster and principal 2nd violinist in the university orchestras that were part of his education.

During the summer of 2019, Rodrigo Quintana had the honor to join Ensemble Connect: A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute Summer intensive program, where he, with his former string quartet, developed interactive chamber music concerts for formal concert audiences to elementary students. Part of the project focused on reaching out to underrepresented communities in New York City to make music accessible to all social scenarios.

Also, in New York City, 2023, Rodrigo was honored to participate in the New York Philharmonic residency program, where he and his colleagues performed chamber music concerts with members of the NY Phill. Concerts were hosted on La Guardia Performing Arts School and Queens College.

Rodrigo has been teaching since 2012 in private studio and music school settings. Mr. Quintana has taught students from all ages, from six years to fifty-three years. His teaching philosophy brings the concept of an infinite learning process that connects with personal growth. Rodrigo is currently in the process of acquiring a comprehensive Suzuki teaching certification. He has recently accepted a violin teaching position in the Dorothy Gerber String Program at the Great Lakes Center for the Arts. As part of faculty duties, Rodrigo is the new member of the Cummings String Quartet at the Great Lakes Center for the Arts.