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The Colombian-born guitarist, Francisco Roldán, has been entertaining audiences since his early years at the Mannes College of Music. He received annual scholarships and attained the Master's Degree in Performance from the Mannes College of Music. He subsequently supplemented his studies by playing in master-classes for Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, David Russell, and Paul O'Dette. In the spring of 1993 he gave a solo New York debut recital at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall that launched his career as a soloist.
Francisco Roldán has performed throughout the USA at Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall Weill Recital Hall and CAMI Hall in New York, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Harmony Hall in Maryland, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, for the Philadelphia Guitar Society, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, the Puffin Gallery, the Colombian Consulates in New York and in Boston, the Smithsonian Library in Washington, D.C., the Museum of the City of New York, Round Top Music Festival, the Spanish Institute, Gracie Mansion, the Americas Society, and various universities and libraries. He has also played in Bogotá, Colombia and in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1996 Francisco Roldán was invited to play a recital at the United Nations for the Colombian Consulate Independence Day Celebration. In 1999 he was invited to perform Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in two performances with the Celebrate! orchestra under the direction of Laurine Fox and was received with much public and critical acclaim. In the 2000 season he played a solo recital at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall under the auspices of the Aranjuez Guitar Strings Series. During the summer of 2006 he played a recital in Bogotá at the Fernando Sor School of Music and was immediately invited back to teach in their annual Guitar Festival in November 2006, and to perform another recital. Last summer (2007) he participated in a recital as an Invited Artist at the Interpretation of Spanish Song Festival in Granada, Spain. He was invited back to the 2008 Festival in Granada as a Guest Artist to teach and play a concert. This summer (2008) he will also play a concert at the Mannes 2008 Guitar Festival in New York City. He has played various concerti and has participated in numerous chamber music recitals with choruses, singers and instrumentalists. He accompanied acclaimed flamenco dancer Pilar Rioja at the Repertorio Español theatre in NYC for 8 seasons.
His first CD of solo music, titled "Latin Guitar" (in which he interprets the music of Barrios, Lauro, and which contains the World Premiere recording of the Dominican composer Rafael Landestoy's complete works for guitar), was released in 2003. In 2005 he released his second CD titled "Almost All Bach" in which he interprets the music of J.S. Bach and D. Scarlatti.
Francisco Roldán is currently on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music Extension and Preparatory Divisions and at Lehman College, City University of New York. |
