Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana approaches music with a rare combination of vulnerability and presence. Born in Mallorca, an immigrant to the United States and a proud dual citizen, he has been praised by BBC Music Magazine for combining “Itzhak Perlman’s warmth with the aristocratic poise of Henryk Szeryng.” His artistry is shaped by his heritage and by a lifelong engagement with sound as culture, language, and personal history.
Fullana looks at music through the lens of emotional synesthesia, a quiet but constant presence since childhood that binds sound to vivid color and emotional memory. Each work becomes linked to an inner archive of images and sensations, tied to his own origin story and to the presence of his grandfather, the visual artist Gabriel Fullana. Performance, for him, is an act of recollection as much as expression.
He moves fluidly across centuries and idioms, from Baroque music on gut strings to Latin American concertos and the great works of the twentieth century. What unites this range is not versatility for its own sake but an immersive way of working that treats each composer as a new language to be learned. Like a method actor, he inhabits the composer’s world rather than interpreting it from the outside. Preparing Vivaldi has led him into Venetian kitchens and obscure manuscripts; Ginastera drew him toward the Indigenous communities of Latin America and the writings of Borges; Arturo Márquez’s Fandango Concerto sent him cave diving deep into the sacred cenotes of the Yucatán, the portals to Xibalba.
Since childhood, Fullana has experienced synesthesia as a quiet but constant presence, linking sound to vivid visual and emotional memory. Music awakens a private archive of images, colors, and sensations that are deeply tied to his own origin story and the presence of his grandfather, the visual artist Gabriel Fullana. Through this lens, each work becomes permanently linked to an inner landscape. Performance becomes an act of recollection as much as expression, inviting audiences into a world where music is felt, seen, and inhabited. He is not only a violinist, but a painter of sound.
This heightened sensory awareness also fuels Fullana’s passion for curating programs that engage listeners across all their senses. This season Francisco curates the Opening Night weekend at The Frick Collection, centered around Goya’s The Forge, exploring the Spanish painter’s inner and outer world through sounds ranging from Mauricio Sotelo’s flamenco violin concerto to Boccherini & Brunetti. He also recently curated the upcoming Solstice concerts at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as part of New York City’s Music in the Park series centered around The Four Seasons, an ode to the Sun and its never ending energy.
Fullana’s artistry has been recognized with honors including the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Khaledi Prize, as well as being an artist of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society. His recordings have reached over 10 million plays on Spotify and Apple Music, and have earned major accolades, including Instrumental Choice of the Month from BBC Music Magazine, which praised Bach’s Long Shadow for its depth and humanity, writing:
“Fullana manages to combine Itzhak Perlman’s warmth with the aristocratic poise of Henryk Szeryng.”
Chicago Classical Review captured the immediacy of his live performances:
“Fullana maintained an improvisatory quality, practically acting through his violin, all while maintaining technical perfection and sweetness of tone on his 1735 Guarneri.”
As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras across the United States, Europe, and Latin America, working with conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, the late Sir Colin Davis, Hans Graf, Jeannette Sorrell, and Carlos Miguel Prieto. Engagements in 2026–2027 include debuts with the San Francisco and Utah Symphonies, the Granada and Tenerife Symphonies, and The Orchestra Now, among others. Return engagements include the RTVE Spanish Radio Symphony and the Xalapa, Aachen, and Tucson Symphonies, as well as Apollo’s Fire, following his previous artist residencies with the Grammy-winning group. His longtime collaboration with the ensemble produced a celebrated recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which was named a Top Ten Album of the Year by The Sunday Times.
Splitting his time between Brooklyn and Mexico, Francisco’s recent projects reflect his deep ties to Hispanic culture and repertoire. These include a new concerto by Latin Grammy winner Juan Pablo Contreras and a forthcoming album on OUTHERE with Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Sinfónica de Minería, pairing Ginastera’s mind-bending Violin Concerto with the romantic Spanish melodies of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole.
Beyond the stage, Fullana is committed to building musical spaces grounded in inclusion, curiosity, and cultural continuity. He is the founder of the Fortissimo Initiative, which creates immersive residencies with youth orchestras and provides sustained mentorship for young Latino musicians, and he serves as Artistic Advisor of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He enjoys deepening multi-year relationships through artist residencies, from Tucson and Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestras to Apollo’s Fire and Metropolis Ensemble. Across every role, his aim is the same: to invite audiences into a world where music is felt, seen, and inhabited.
Fullana studied at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and The Juilliard School, and counts the violinist Midori as a formative mentor whose influence continues to shape his musical and artistic values. He performs on the 1735 “Mary Portman” ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, kindly on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago. Miss Mary, as she’s known, is an instrument whose voice he treats not as a relic, but a living partner in their ongoing artistic journey.