Biography
Increasingly recognized as a versatile and passionate performer, Brazilian-born violinist Moises Bonella Cunha has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Brazil, Italy, Russia, and United States. As winner of several competitions, Moises has been featured as a soloist with major Brazilian symphonic and chamber orchestras, including Bahia Symphony Orchestra and Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra.. He has also appeared as a soloist with Theatro Sao Pedro Chamber Orchestra, ARCO Chamber Orchestra, Northern Neck Orchestra, University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Florianópolis, Santa Maria Symphony Orchestra, SESI Chamber Orchestra, Caxias do Sul Symphony Orchestra, and Unicamp Symphony Orchestra, receiving excellent reviews. Solo appearances with orchestras include concerti by Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Glazunov, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, Vivaldi, and more. Moises has also performed on Brazilian television such as TV Educativa and TV Senado as a soloist of the Projeto SESI Catedrais.
Passionate about chamber music, Moises is Artistic Director of the Northern Neck Chamberfest and the Northern Neck Chamber Music Series in Virginia. He is a frequent artist at the Bell’Anima Concert Series in Brazil, and has toured extensively across Brazil with Camerata Ontoarte. He has also been a Festival Artist with the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans, collaborating with members of the Manhattan Chamber Players. At the invitation of renowned pianist Arnaldo Cohen, Moises Cunha performed a solo recital for a full audience at the prestigious Sala São Paulo. Moises also performed alongside GRAMMY® winner Craig Hella Johnson, being featured as the solo violinist in his latest work "Considering Matthew Shepard". Moises is a founding member of the Delachaise Ensemble, an innovative and genre-defying ensemble presenting concerts and educational outreach throughout the Gulf region.
As an orchestra player, Moises has served as the Concertmaster of the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra during the Indiana University Summer Music Festival, and also performed with the Indiana University Early Music and New Music Ensembles. Since 2018, Moises has served as Concertmaster and Artist-in-Residence of the Northern Neck Orchestra, working closely with GRAMMY® Winning conductor, Michael Repper. He also performs regularly with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans.
A devoted and passionate educator, Moises Cunha serves as director and string faculty of the Crescent City String Academy and the Crescent City String Camp & Festival in New Orleans, and Violin Instructor at Make Music NOLA, an El Sistema-inspired program that offers free access and opportunities for students in Orleans Parish. He has given numerous masterclasses in the United States and Brazil, including Xavier University of Louisiana, FUNDARTE, and Pelotas Federal University. He is a frequent Artist-in-Residence with Recanto Maestro Youth Orchestra in his native Brazil, where he presents masterclasses, and coaches chamber music and orchestra sectionals. In 2020, Moises was a guest artist at the Goiás Federal University International Music Festival, in its virtual format. He has also been a guest artist at Loyola University New Orleans, working closely in sectionals and performance with undergraduate and graduate students in orchestra repertoire. Moises is currently on the faculty of the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra and the Young Artist Academy, coaching chamber music and also mentoring and working with the youth orchestra in rehearsals and sectionals.
Moises Cunha studied chamber music with Ik-Hwan Bae, Federico Agostini, Alan de Veritch, Jorja Fleezanis, James Campbell, Emile Naoumoff, and members of the Pacifica Quartet. He worked and performed in masterclass for Erich Rosenblith, Nam Yun Kim, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Patinka Kopec, among others.
Moises Cunha holds a B.M. and a M.M. from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he was a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, Conrado Wessel Foundation Scholarship, The Scott C. and Kathrin Schutz Latin American Scholarship, and the Artistic Excellence Award. Moises Bonella Cunha completed the D.M.A. at University of Georgia in the spring of 2018. His primary mentors include Mauricio Fuks, Kevork Mardirossian, and Levon Ambartsumian.
“The chamber concert this past Sunday by a trio of outstanding musicians brought a new level of excellence in the genre to this area. A large audience at Good Luck Cellars showed its appreciation by repeated stand-up ovations and shouts of Bravo! [...] The musicians were of the highest quality, the program was a brilliant mixture of standards classics and contemporary music from South America and the execution was powerful. It was a magical hour and a half of chamber music as close to perfection as I have heard in my many years of concert-going.”
“We found the performance to be of the best quality, technically and musically, of the many we have enjoyed in the Gellman Room virtual series. We thank you and the Richmond Public Library for continuing to offer this series while we all enjoy lockdown.”