VIOLA BY CHOICE
Viola By Choice is a chamber ensemble registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It was founded in 2007 by charismatic French violist Aurélien Pétillot to promote the originality, versatility and importance of the viola and its repertoire through research, performance, commissioning, publishing, teaching, and recording of works for viola in variable instrumental combinations.
Viola By Choice advocates Music as an accessible and universal life changing energy, as well as one of the richest forms of human expression and creativity. With its unique mix of artistry and conviviality, Viola By Choice wishes to guide any audience into a deep, enriching, active, and lasting relationship with music, and to foster cultural and personal exchanges between artists and the community, while challenging stereotypes associated with Classical Music and the viola.
The viola is the perfect symbol of irresistible, boundless beauty too often concealed. As such, it is the hope of Viola By Choice that it will encourage all to awaken, embrace, and share their inner viola, while reconnecting with each other and to Music.
Viola By Choice received the 2009 "Best body of work" Austin Table Critics Award.
Aurelien Petillot - Founder and artistic director
French Violist Aurélien Pétillot, founder and artistic director of Viola by Choice, has garnered much esteem as a versatile and engaging performer, lecturer, and pedagogue. He has been invited as a guest artist and soloist by many ensembles and orchestras, in Europe and North America, including the new music ensemble Sound Inversions, the American Repertory Ensemble, the Texas Bach Choir, the Balcones Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. He has performed with the Cavani String Quartet, members of the Azmari, Mirò, and Tosca String Quartets, and toured with The Young Eight, the only professional String Octet in America.
His strong attachment to new music has led him to work in close relationship with many of today’s most important composers, from Samuel Adler, to Chen Yi, including Derek Bermel, William Bolcom, Martin Bresnick, John Corigliano, Rob Deemer, Stephen Hartke, Lowell Liebermann, Zhou Long, Kathryn Mischell, Augusta Read- Thomas, Christopher Theophanidis, Michael Torke, Dan Welcher and many others.
Aurélien Pétillot holds a Bachelor’s in musicology and performance from the Sorbonne University of Paris, a Master’s from the Mannes College of Music, in New York, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Pétillot is the viola faculty at the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he also has taught courses in 19th century Music History, Music history from 1750 to the present, Survey of music literature, Music understanding, and aural skills.
Previously, Dr. Pétillot was a long-time faculty artist with the Austin Chamber Music Center, and taught at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor while maintaining a successful private studio. He also played regularly with the Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Victoria symphony orchestras, as well as the Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin.
His lecture/recital entitled Death Symbolism as Creative Hallmark in Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, based on his doctoral thesis, has been presented in various universities in America and in France as part of the commemorations celebrating the 100th anniversary of Shostakovich’s birth. Other lectures have dealt with humor in music, the inter-relationships between the arts, and of course, the viola...
Dr. Pétillot plays a viola by Friedrich Alber, made especially for him in 1997.