Miss. Bianca d'Avila do Prado

Brazilian cellist, pedagogue and composer Bianca d’Avila do Prado is member of the cello faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and online instructor for the University of Idaho Preparatory Division. As part of her work at MIC, she recently started and coordinates the Third Coast Suzuki Strings, a tuition-free Suzuki Cello outreach program for the Hispanic community in Evanston, IL.

Ms. Prado holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance and String Pedagogy degree from Illinois State University. At ISU, she completed her cello studies under Dr. Adriana Ransom and Dr. Cora Swenson-Lee, receiving a scholarship to work as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the ISU String Project, and was the ISU Symphony Orchestra Principal Cello.

Her Suzuki Teaching Training Courses include Suzuki Philosophy with Dr. Shinobu Saito and Eduardo Ludueña and Every Child Can with Edward Kreitman. She also took Suzuki Cello Units 1, 2, 3 and 4 with Dr. David Evenchick, Unit 5, 6, 7 and 8 with Dr. Tanya Carey and Revisiting Unit 1 with Sally Gross. She was part of the “Clases Grupales” online training with Andrea Spinzo, Setting Up Families for Success seminar with Christine Goodner and attended the Group Class Techniques course with Carey Beth Hockett at the Chicago Suzuki Institute in 2022 and the Suzuki Practicum training with Nancy Hair at the Chicago Suzuki Institute in 2023.

Bianca has been invited to teach at Festivals in Brazil and in the US, including the Illinois State University String Project Summer Camp in 2019 and 2020 and the First Sandpoint Summer Strings Festival in 2021. She was also a guest teacher and lecturer at the XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXV and XXV Encontro de Violoncelos, in Brazil. As an adjudicator, she was part of the committee for the 3rd Concurso Jovem Violoncelista Jean-Jacques Pagnot (BR) and the First Sandpoint Summer Strings Festival Adjudication (US).

She got her Bachelor’s in Cello Performance in 2007, studying with Dr. Angela Ferrari at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, in Brazil. Ms. Bianca Prado’s works include six CD recordings with Camerata Ontoarte, two of them featuring the soprano Carla Maffioletti. With this group, she had the opportunity to perform concerts throughout several of Brazil’s capital cities and in Lodi, Italy and Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was also part of a project called A Lua de Santiago, recording a repertoire composed by Fernando Avila for accordion and string quintet. Bianca was part of the Theatro São Pedro Chamber Orchestra from 2011 to 2018. She was also part of the Quatricelli Cello Quartet, winner of the Premio Funarte de Concertos Didaticos 2014.  She taught cello at Escola Tio Zequinha, a Suzuki School in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 2010 to 2018.

She started and headed the cello program at the Suzuki String Academy, in Sandpoint, ID. She also taught Junior Orchestra at the Sandpoint Christian School and was the North Idaho Philarmonia principal cello. In Illinois, she plays as a guest musician with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and the MIC Academy Orchestra.

Bianca actively works on making Brazilian music for strings more accessible and performed in the US. Her article Teaching Diversity: Four Brazilian Pieces for String Orchestra was published in the Scroll Magazine* from the Illinois ASTA in 2021. Another article, titled Viajando Pelo Brasil I, Suite for Strings: A Fun way to Explore the Richness of Brazilian Culture and Music, was published in the American String Teacher Magazine in May 2022.

Her article Setting Habits for Success: How Being a Suzuki Student Can Transform Your Child’s Brain was published in the American Suzuki Journal in November 2021.

Bianca’s composition Brazilian Habanera for strings is being published as part of the Mosaic, a Collection of String Music by Black and Latino composers, promoted by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville with a prize awarded by the Sphinx Venture Fund.
In 2023, she was commissioned by the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium, and composed a work called Suite Pequenina for Cello Solo, an intermediate piece in 5 movements featuring Latin American styles and rhythms.
Bianca is also part of the first cohort of the New Canon Project, an initiative with grant support from the Sphinx Venture Fund, where Rising Tide Music Press, the American String Teachers Association, and the American Choral Directors Association are partnered together to focus on commissioning new works by Black and Latinx composers for the orchestra and choral classrooms.