About

Painter
of Sound

Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana approaches music with a rare combination of vulnerability and presence.

IOrigins

Born in Mallorca, an immigrant to the United States and a proud dual citizen, Francisco's work is deeply shaped by his Hispanic heritage and a lifelong engagement with sound as culture, language, and personal history.

His playing is guided by an innate synesthesia that binds sound to the colours and emotional traces of an inner library built from memory and lived experience — a quality tied to the presence of his grandfather, the visual artist Gabriel Fullana.

He is not only a violinist, but a painter of sound.

Francisco Fullana portrait
IIA Method of Immersion

Fullana moves fluidly across centuries and idioms, from Baroque music on gut strings to Latin American concertos and the great works of the 20th century.

Like a method actor, he channels each composer and their life until the music feels inhabited rather than interpreted. Preparing Vivaldi has led him into Venetian kitchens and the daily rituals of the lagoon; working on Ginastera drew him toward the indigenous communities of Latin America and Borges' Ficciones; Arturo Márquez's Fandango Concerto brought him to learn cave diving, immersing himself in the cenotes of the Yucatán.

IIIOn the Stage

As a soloist he has appeared with orchestras across the United States, Europe and Latin America, with conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, the late Sir Colin Davis, Hans Graf, Christoph Poppen and Carlos Miguel Prieto.

Among them the Utah, Buffalo, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Pacific, Minería, Castilla y León and Aachen Symphonies, the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE and the Münchner Rundfunk Orchester. His long-standing collaboration with Apollo's Fire and conductor Jeannette Sorrell has been particularly formative; their recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons was named a Top Ten Album of the Year by The Times.

10M+
Streams on Spotify & Apple Music
Avery Fisher
Career Grant
Khaledi
Prize
Lincoln Center
Chamber Music Society Artist
IVBeyond the Concert Hall

Fullana is the founder of the Fortissimo Foundation, focused on immersive residencies with youth orchestras and sustained work with young Latino musicians.

He serves as Artistic Advisor of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Artistic Director of the 210 Festival in Texas, where his interest in conductor-less performance and imaginative programming continues to evolve. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and The Juilliard School, and counts the violinist Midori as a formative mentor.

VMiss Mary
1735 Guarneri del Gesù

The "Mary
Portman"
Guarneri

Francisco performs on the 1735 "Mary Portman" ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù, kindly on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Miss Mary, as she's known, is an instrument whose voice he treats not as a relic, but a living partner in their ongoing artistic journey.

Hear
For Yourself

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