Mr. Rodrigo Zafani Quintana

Rodrigo Zafani Quintana started his career in music in Sorocaba in 2004, and attended the best institutions in Brazil including the Conservatory of Music and Drama, “Dr. Carlos de Campos” in Tatui, the School of Music of the State of Sao Paulo. His primary teachers and mentors at those schools were Graziella Pagotto, Emmanuelle Baldini, and Dr. Stephen Redfield at The University of Southern Mississippi. Quintana is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in music performance under the tutelage of Dr. Laura Talbott-Clark at Oklahoma State University and has recently been awarded the Patti Johnson Wilson Foundation Fellowship in String Orchestral Performance with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Quintana has actively participated in many master classes and lessons with well-known teachers and artists including Mikhail Kopelman (Eastman School of Music), Igor Petrutchevsky (Wagner Conservatory/ Vienna), Mauricio Fuks (Indiana University), and Rüdiger Liebermann (Berlin Philharmonic). He has also been active in the chamber music field which gave him the opportunity to participate in master classes and workshops with The Pacifica String Quartet, Ariel String Quartet, American String Quartet, Brentano String Quartet and Dali String Quartet.

Since the early stages of his career in Brazil, Rodrigo has played in the main concert halls, including Sao Paulo Hall and the Opera House of Sao Paulo. As a member of the Youth Orchestra of Sao Paulo, he received a fellowship which gave him the opportunity to tour with the orchestra in Germany twice in 2012 and 2013 where he played in the main concert halls including the Konzerthaus Berlin. Quintana was a member of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra and Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra since 2014, and most recently was the concertmaster of The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra until Spring 2021.

During the summer of 2019, Rodrigo had the honor of joining Ensemble Connect: A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute Summer intensive program where he, with his former string quartet (Kahlo String Quartet), played interactive chamber music concerts for formal concert audiences to elementary students. Part of the project was focused on reaching out to underrepresented communities in New York City with the goal of making music accessible to all social scenarios. Rodrigo has been teaching since 2012 in private studio and music school setting having taught students from all ages, from six years to fifty-three years. His philosophy of teaching brings the concept of an infinite learning process that connects with personal growth. Rodrigo is currently in the process of acquiring a comprehensive Suzuki teaching certification, and in the process of completion the alternative teaching certification in the state of Oklahoma.