FRANCISCO (PACO) ÁLVAREZ DÍAZ, from Madrid, Spain, is a professor of piano at the Conservatory of Music in Granada and conducts the Science School Choir at the University of Granada. His musical training includes studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM ’89), Southern Methodist University in Dallas (MM ’92) and the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany. His most influential teachers are Guillermo González, Boris Bloch and his latest professor Joaquín Achúcarro.

He made his orchestral debut at age 18 at the Sundome in Phoenix, playing Beethoven’s First Concerto under Eugene Lombardi for an audience of 5,000. Since then, he has specialized in Spanish and American music, which has presented in concert in halls in Spain, the United States, South and Central America, Caribbean, and Europe. As well, he has conducted numerous piano Master Classes in Spain and abroad, as well as lectures and concerts throughout the United States and Europe on Spanish repertoire and historical matters.

He is a faculty member at Middlebury College’s prestigious Summer Language Schools where he has performed Spanish and American music for over twenty-five years. In 2016 he received the Lillian Stroebe Centennial Medal as recognition of his outstanding work and contribution to the School of Spanish.

Learn more at his Youtube Channel.