Cuban pianist Elio Villafranca is a Steinway Artist, winner of the 2018 Downbeat Critic’s Poll Rising Stars in the Keyboard Category, and a 2009 and 2018 Grammy Nominated. In 2014 Villafranca was a recipient of the first Jalc Millennium Swing Award! Since his arrival in the U.S. in mid-1995, Mr. Villafranca is at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable pianists, composers, and bandleaders. Over the years Elio Villafranca has recorded and performed nationally and internationally as a leader, featuring jazz master artists such as Pat Martino, Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, Chick Corea, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Johnny Pacheco among others. He is based in New York City and he is a faculty member of Temple University, Philadelphia, The Juilliard School of Music, New York University, and Manhattan School of Music in NYC.
