Audition Cafe

Introduction

Praised for his “beautiful tone” and “exceptional quality of nobility in his playing,” Filipino violinist and violist Lorenzo Raval is acclaimed for his versatility and dedication to the numerous aspects of his instruments – as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. Lorenzo performs as violinist and violist with Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, and is an active freelance performer in the Philadelphia area. His playing can be heard on the 2018 GRAMMY Winning recording of Lansing McCloskey’s Zealot Canticles with Donald Nally and The Crossing, and in the 2018 Netflix movie Candy Jar. Upcoming highlights in 2019-2020 include performances as violist and violinist with Odin Rathnam at the Riverhouse Concerts in May and at the Forum in September in Harrisburg, as violinist in Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet with the Esherick Trio and Friends in Harleysville in June, and recitals of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas in February and Bolling’s Suite for Violin and Jazz Piano Trio in June at Community Music School in Trappe.

Born and raised in Quezon City, Philippines, Lorenzo received his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and Master of Music degree in Viola Performance from the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. He also attended the University of the Phillipines as a violin and music education major, and was a scholar at the Philippine High School for the Arts. His teachers include violinists Alfonso Bolipata, Helen Kwalwasser and Odin Rathnam, and violist Che-Hung Chen. His chamber music coaches have included Alfonso Bolipata, Rhonda Rider, Jeffrey Solow, Valissa Willwerth and Lambert Orkis, and he has performed at the masterclasses of violinists Pamela Frank, Oscar Yatco, Alexandru Tomescu, Thanos Adamopoulos and Takako Nishizaki, violist Kim Kashkashian, and the Alexander, Emerson, St. Lawrence and Ying Quartets.

A two-time prizewinner at the Philippines’ National Music Competition for Young Artists in 1999 and 2002, Lorenzo has appeared as soloist with the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra, the University of Santo Tomas Symphony Orchestra and the Pundaquit Chamber Players, and has given recitals at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Francisco Santiago Hall, and Corpus Hall at Casa San Miguel. He was first violinist of the Corpus String Quartet and was violinist and violist with the Pundaquit Chamber Players, performing chamber music in concert halls and alternative performance spaces in Manila, Zambales, Ilocos, Boracay, and Davao.

Lorenzo has performed chamber music with violinists Alfonso Bolipata, Ellen DePasquale, Jason DePue, William Harvey, Odin Rathnam and Oscar Yatco , cellists Ramon Bolipata, Victor Coo, Mirjam Ingolfsson, Renato Lucas and Jeremiah Shaw, pianists Clement Acevedo, Kim Barroso, Becky Lu, Jourdann Petalver and Mikhail Yanovitsky, violist Frank Shaw, hornist Danielle Kuhlmann, and members of the iO Quartet, Clarion Chamber Ensemble and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. Lorenzo served as co-concertmaster of the Temple University Symphony Orchestra in its concerts at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and Alice Tully Hall in New York in 2010, and as principal viola in its return to Alice Tully Hall in 2013. He was also co-concertmaster or principal viola in that orchestra’s three GRAMMY Nominated albums in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Lorenzo was also the first concertmaster of the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra from its 2000 inaugural season to 2006, and was first violinist with the Asian Youth Orchestra in its 2001 and 2002 tours of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

A dedicated and enthusiastic teacher, Lorenzo was Resident Artist at Casa San Miguel in Zambales, Philippines from 2000 to 2006, where he taught violin and viola, and coached and conducted the Pundaquit Virtuosi, an ensemble composed of the best young string players from the Zambales community. He was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Temple University’s Community Music Scholars Program from 2011 to 2013, and was a faculty member and music director of the LMA String Ensemble at the Leopold Mozart Academy in Elkins Park and Morrisville, Pennsylvania from 2010 to 2017. He is currently a faculty member at Community Music School in Trappe, Pennsylvania.

Lorenzo currently lives in South Philadelphia.