Ayrton Pisco

Ayrton Pisco plays “with aplomb, displaying a spirited line, crystalline and deftly defined” (San Diego Story) and has received top prizes in numerous competitions throughout the United States and abroad. Concert engagements have taken him across North and South America, Europe and Asia. He has also performed as a soloist in prestigious venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Jacobs Music Center and the Cláudio Santoro National Theater in Brazil.
Currently a member of the Kansas City Symphony, Mr. Pisco has also performed with ensembles such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and under the batons of conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Andris Nelsons. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with principals of the New York Philharmonic and has been featured on the WQXR and KUSC radio stations.
Mr. Pisco is also a passionate educator. He previously served as a teaching artist at Yale University’s Music in Schools Initiative, the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, the San Diego State University Community Music School and the Ibero-American Philharmonic Academy in Medellín, Colombia.
Mr. Pisco is a first-prize winner of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’ Young Artists Competition, the Giavanna Kersulis Memorial Endowment Scholarship Auditions, the Grossmont Music Scholarship Council Competition and the San Diego University Concerto Competition. He is also a laureate of the Musical Merit Foundation Scholarship Auditions, the University of Southern¬ California’s Solo Bach Competition, the Sphinx Orchestral Partners Auditions, the Música no Museu Young Musicians Competition, the Francisco Mignone String Competition and the Paulo Bosísio String Competition.
In addition to classical music, Mr. Pisco also enjoys performing in genres such as jazz, tango, bossa nova, choro, mariachi and others. He has collaborated with groups such as Trio Gadjo and Besos de Coco and participated in shows in spaces such as House of Blues San Diego and Clube da Bossa Nova in Brazil.
A native of Brasília, Brazil, Mr. Pisco holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Southern California and San Diego State University. He has also been a fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the New World Symphony, and spent summers at music festivals in Tanglewood, Aspen, Sarasota, Bayreuth (Germany) and Sapporo (Japan). His principal teachers include Ani Kavafian, Margaret Batjer, Pei-Chun Tsai and his father, Ayrton Macedo Pisco.