Ashan Pillai

Ashan Pillai
Born	December 1st 1969 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Residence	Barcelona, Spain
Nationality	British
Education	Royal Academy of Music,London; University of Southern California, Los Angeles ;Banff Center for the Arts, Canada; Juilliard School, New York
Occupation	Violist and Professor
Home town	London,United Kingdom
Children	Amalia Pillai and Priyanka Pillai ( born 2009)

Ashan Pillai (born 1969 in Colombo, Sri Lanka) is a British violist. He was educated as a music and academic scholar at Merchant Taylors School, London and then at the Royal Academy of Music, London, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and the Juilliard School, New York City. His principal teachers were John White, Donald McInnes and Karen Tuttle.

Between 1994 and 1998 he won several prizes at international and national competitions including the Tertis and Rome International Competitions, the Royal Overseas League and Park Lane Group Competitions in London and Artists International in New York. These successes led to acclaimed debuts in London's Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room (1997–1999), New York's Carnegie Hall and festivals throughout the world including Salzburg, Tanglewood, Banff, Ravinia, Aspen, Casals (Puerto Rico, France and Barcelona), and Schleswig-Holstein. He has premiered works ( many dedicated for him) by noted Spanish composers, Anton Garcia Abril, Leonardo Balada, Francisco Fleta Polo etc.. and on an international stage, works by Krystof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm and Gavin Bryars.

Pillai has performed as soloist under the batons of Christian Zacharias, Eiji Oue, Andrew Parrott, Christopher Hogwood, Robert King, Lawrence Foster, with the English, Gulbenkian, Czech, Andorran and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, as well as I Musici, London and New York, several Spanish orchestras and collaborated with the likes of Lynn Harrell, Zacarias, the Kreutzer and Brodsky Quartets, and the Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt.

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