About
I direct and play the recorder with More Hispano, and teach here. I’m one of the few Early Music pros fully focused on improvisation, and that’s why—I guess—I’ve been called a rara avis within this field.
Whereas for most period-instrument bands improvisation means judiciously adding ornaments, Mr. Parrilla and company go all out.
Mr. Parrilla, on recorder, takes turns with the other instrumentalists elaborating on the composers’ melodies, often adding modal touches and varying the rhythms, much as a virtuosic jazz band would do with a group of standards.
—The New York Times, February 17, 2011
Director of More Hispano, recorder player Vicente Parrilla has fully devoted for the last years to the art of improvisation within the early music repertoire.
Born in 1977, Vicente Parrilla studied the recorder at Seville’s conservatory with Guillermo Peñalver. When he was only 17, he moved to The Netherlands in order to further his studies, initially with Jeanette van Wingerden at the The Hague’s Koniklijk Conservatorium, and then with Walter van Hauwe at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, graduating in 2001. He completed his studies with Pedro Memelsdorff at Esmuc in Barcelona.
He began his concert career at a very early age, making his debut CD—a record entirely devoted to Spanish 17th century composer B. de Selma y Salaverde (see links to Spotify and iTunes)—at the age of 20.
In addition to leading More Hispano, Vicente Parrilla has collaborated with a wide selection of groups: Accademia del Piacere, The Royal Wind Music Consort, Artefactum, Orphenica Lyra, Capella de Ministrers, El Paraíso Perdido, Seville’s Baroque Orchestra (with whom he has performed as soloist) and Madrid’s Symphonic orchestra. He has also performed in various festivals and concert halls in Spain, Ireland, England, Austria, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany and Slovenia.
Vicente Parrilla has taught the recorder at several masterclasses held at the conservatories of Zaragoza and Cuenca, as well as during the XIII, XIV y XV Muestra de Música Antigua Castillo de Aracena (Huelva). Since 2004 he has been regularly teaching Recorder, Ornamentation and Improvisation for Period Instruments at Seville’s Conservatorio Superior de Música.
In 2010 More Hispano’s second CD, Yr a oydo, was recorded under his direction, and his third CD as More Hipano’s leader has just been released (Glosas, 2011).
Visit my band’s website: morehispano.com