Staff & faculty

Emilio Arredondo is an award-winning fiddler and multi-genre electric/ acoustic violin. Emilio starting with kinder music and piano at the age of 5. When he was 7, he showed an affinity for the violin. When Emilio was eight years old, a gracious family friend and now colleague lent him his first fractional sized instrument. He then went on to study classical music with many teachers through grade school and in 1999 he discovered his new love for Celtic music. While in grade school, Emilio continued his classical studies as well as continuing to learn from Grand Master fiddle champion, Roberta Rast. He entered and placed in many Texas Old Time Fiddlers Association contests around Texas, attended and taught at several fiddle camps in Nashville and Houston and even was a coaching assistant at Houston’s Project GRAD summer program from 2004 to 2006. He is currently a summer coach at Houston’s AFA summer string camp! Later he attended and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance from Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee he focused on many various styles of violin including: Classical, Celtic, Jazz, Klezmer, Bluegrass and transcriptions. His primary teachers at Berklee were Sandy Kott of the Boston Pops, Mimi Rabson, John McGann and Matt Glaser.

Emilio now resides in Houston where he freelances, coaches at AFA and runs a very successful violin studio in the historic Houston Heights. He also has the opportunity to perform regularly with members of the Houston Symphony, Houston Ballet and Houston Grand Opera. He also performs regularly with Houston’s Latin American Philharmonic, Symphony of Southeast Texas, Baytown Symphony Orchestra, Second Baptist Church and Sugar Land Baptist Church. His performance opportunities have taken him from various stages with different symphonies to performing with big artists such as Diana Ross, Mark Wood, Dallas String Quartet, Philadelphia String Quartet, Dublin Free Press, VOGUE, Rusty Budde, The Killdares, DJ HAPA, Bluprint, Emerald Rae, Hanneke Cassel, Mike Block, and Mari Black.

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