Meet Our Musicians: Thomas Viloteau, Guitar Soloist

French guitar phenomenon Thomas Viloteau is widely considered one of the most gifted classical guitarists today.

He has won first place in an impressive list of some of the world’s finest competitions such as the Guitar Foundation of America competition, the Francisco Tárrega and Andrés Segovia competitions in Spain, the Mottola competition in Italy, the Sernancelhe competition in Portugal and the Ville d’Antony competition in France.

Since then, he has gone on to concertize in some of the best venues throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Taiwan, and Puerto Rico.

After his debut recording ‘Guitar Recital’ with Naxos, Viloteau released ‘Romantic’ with La Ma de Guido and a DVD with MelBay. His two latest albums, ‘Dances Through the Centuries’ and ‘A Song and Dance’ released on Tigado Records, contain world premiere recordings of Sergio Assad’s Suite Brasileira 4, and Suite Brasileira 3 which was commissioned and dedicated to him

Viloteau studied with some of the most important guitar luminaries in the world such as Judicael Perroy, Roland Dyens, Alberto Ponce, Alvaro Pierri, Nicholas Goluses, Marc Teicholz and Paul O’Dette, and attended some of the world’s most prestigious conservatories, including École Normale and Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, Barcelona’s Conservatorio Superior Municipal, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, where he received a doctorate in Guitar Performance and Literature with a minor in Early Music.  

This rich and diverse educational background led him to write a book on guitar technique ‘In the Black Box, Technique(s) of the Classical Guitar,’ which quickly sold more than a thousand copies worldwide.

He is the recipient of the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association and he has been the Artist-in-Residence at the radio show Performance Today, broadcasting his performances to more than a million people across the USA.

In 2019, Viloteau joined the guitar faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.