Villafruela Miguel

(Cuba)

Miguel Villafruela plays the Vandoren TL3 mouthpiece (OPTIMUM Series) with Vandoren Traditional reeds number 3

Miguel Villafruela plays the Vandoren TL3 mouthpiece (OPTIMUM Series) with Vandoren Traditional reeds number 3

Miguel Villafruela began stuying saxophone in his hometown of Hoguín, Cuba, and continued them at the National School of Arts in Havana, with professors Osvaldo González and Carlos Averhoff where he graduated in 1976. At a later time he went to study with Daniel Deffayet at the Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris, and won the Premier Prix de Saxophone in 1982. He also received a Masters of Arts diploma at the Universidad de Chile and a Doctorate in Music from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA).

Villafruela is considered an authority on the saxophone performance technique and repertoire. He founded the saxophone faculty at the Instituto Superior de Artes of Cuba in 1982, and taught there until 1993. By invitation of the University of Chile Music Department he founded in 1994 the first higher education Saxophone Faculty in that country. He has been Titular Professor at the Arts Faculty of the University of Chile. Villafruela has taught clinics for Vandoren, Selmer and BG in Argentine and Chile. He is frequently invited to give Master Classes at renowned music institutions all over the world.