Biography
Francisco Chomnalez, age 21, is a graduate of the Precollege Division of the Manhattan School of Music (“MSM”) in New York City, where he studied from 2006 until 2012. He is currently a junior at Yale College where he studies piano with Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot. At MSM he studied with Maria Asteriadou and was the 2012 recipient of The Constance Keene Precollege Piano Award. Francisco has also studied privately or participated in master classes with Marie Françoise Bucquet, Kenneth Cooper, Judit Gabos, Yuri Kot, Marina Lomazov, Miyoko Lotto, Victoria Mushkatkol, and Anatoly Zatin. Francisco has won top prizes in several competitions including The Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition, the American Protégé Romantic Music Competition, the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition, the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, and the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition. He has performed numerous times at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), Merkin Hall, Greenfield Hall, CAMI Hall, Steinway Hall and several other recital halls in the United States, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ukraine and Argentina. Francisco has also performed piano concerti with several orchestras. In July 2011, he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kiev, and, in the summer of 2010, he performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 with both the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kiev, and the Orquesta de la Asociación de Profesores de la Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 2007 until 2012 Francisco was awarded an annual scholarship from the Children’s Foundation for the Arts based on his achievements and commitment to the arts.
Francisco is also a talented cellist and was a cello minor at the Precollege Division of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with cellist Wolfram Koessel. Francisco has played the cello as a soloist with several professional orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 2008. He has also played as an orchestra member with several youth orchestras including the Sorbonne University Orchestra during the 2012-2013 academic year. He currently plays for the Saybrook College Orchestra at Yale.
Francisco is an avid chamber musician. In June 2013 he won the Kutztown Music Festival Chamber Music Competition performing Schumann’s Quintet in E-flat Major. He has participated and performed, both solo and chamber works, in summer music festivals in France (2009), Ukraine (2005, 2008, 2010 and 2011), Germany (2005 and 2008), Italy (2007), and Spain (2006). He also attended the Southeastern Piano Festival at the University of South Carolina, the Kutztown University Music Festival, and Interlochen Arts Camp.
Francisco is always looking at ways to combine his love of music with opportunities to help out the community. For several years he taught piano to children in public school who could not afford private instrumental instruction as part of Interschool Orchestras’ Teacher Intern Program. He also performs regularly at adult care facilities, nursing homes and community centers.