Biography | Jonathan Floril

Jonathan Floril is one of the world’s foremost pianists of his generation and the recipient of over 30 top prizes. Since his triumph as the first prize winner of the 59th Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in New York City and after his successful debut at Carnegie Hall, featuring an All-Chopin recital, pianist Jonathan Floril has been highly praised as a masterly performer of the romantic piano literature, in addition to having at his command a vast repertoire that spans more than four centuries of piano composition.

A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, 27-year-old Ecuadorian pianist Jonathan Floril has made over five hundred concert appearences at some of the most distinguished concert venues both of the European and American continents; including Wiener Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Wiener Hofburg, MuTh-Konzertsaal der Wiener Sängerknaben, Schloss Leopoldskron, Residenz zu Salzburg, Kaufmann Concert Hall (92Y), Merkin Hall, Steinway Hall, Teatro Real y Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Auditorio Miguel Delibes, Auditorio de León, Moores Opera House in Houston, Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary and Steinway Festival in Hamburg.

At his acclaimed All-Wagner recital debut at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Spain, where Maestro Lorin Maazel was former music director, critics described him as “more than a prodigy, not only because of what he performs, but also how he performs…his extraordinary musical gifts are united by his professional honesty and authentic artistic dimension.” Floril´s orchestral debut followed at Casa de la Música in his birth country, Ecuador, as soloist on Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto with the Ecuadorian Philharmonic under the legendary baton of Maestro Piero Gamba.

Mr. Floril's concerts have been broadcasted by the Spanish National Television (TVE), Radio Clásica, New York´s WQXR, Radio Stephansdom and ORF. As a soloist, Floril has performed the complete piano concertos of Beethoven, including the Triple Concerto, as well as Tchaikovksy and Rachmaninoff Concertos No. 2 and 3 under the baton of Gamba, Aizaga, Furió, Abrashev, Schnieper, Scheidt, among others. At piano competitions, Mr. Floril has won over thirty top prizes. First Prizes include the Chopin (New York), Ricard Viñes, V Ciudad de Huesca, VII Pedro Bote (Best performance of Spanish music), VI Intercentros (Madrid), XVIII Jacinto Guerrero; Second Prizes at 2006-08 Infanta Cristina, 2008, Ciutat de Carlet; Bronze Medal at the 2008 Gina Bachauer as well as a Semifinalist distinction at the 2009 Honens International Piano Competition.

At age 16, Floril was awarded The Harold and Helen Schonberg Pianist Full Scholarship to study at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music in New York City where he graduated from. At his residency in New York City, besides completing his degree in piano performance, Floril studied harpsichord with Louis Bagger, a pupil of Ralph Kirkpatrick and furthered his studies with the world’s leading specialist in the music of the 18th century, Kenneth Cooper. He has also worked with experts and musicologists specialized on works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert such as Paul Badura-Skoda, Robert Levin and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling; as well as performed in master classes taught by Jacques Rouvier, Arie Vardi and Ann Schein -- a pupil of Arthur Rubinstein. As a distinguished alumnus of the Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Floril received the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Award as well as the Jan Gorbaty Prize for the best performance of the music of Chopin, while studying under the guidance of professor Solomon Mikowsky and pianist Marc Silverman, a pupil of Constance Keene and Abram Chasins, who himself assistant to legendary pianist Józef Hofmann.