Biography

Viviana was born in Villavicencio, Colombia and studied the oboe at the Conservatorio de Música of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in the class of Andreas Schneider, where she received her bachelor’s degree in music in 2011.

In 2012, Viviana won the Young Talents Scholarship Competition of the Banco de la República de Colombia, which sponsored her Master of Arts at the Royal Academy of Music. Viviana graduated with distinction in 2014 in the class of Celia Nicklin, Melanie Ragge and Jill Crowther for cor anglais.

During her time at the Royal Academy of Music, Viviana won the Paddy Purcell Award, the Barry Grimaldi Prize for cor anglais solo and the Janet Craxton Memorial Prize 2014.

Viviana’s orchestral experience includes the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia where she was the second oboe and cor anglais for five years, the Young Philharmonic Orchestra of Colombia, Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme and Penderecki Music Academy Westphalen in 2013. Viviana was also on trial for the Principal Cor Anglais position at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2013-2014 season.

QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS

What do you love about classical music?
I love that I have met a lot of people around the world whilst performing classical music: I don´t need to speak a lot of languages, I have met and spoken to them all through the music.

What’s on your playlist right now?
Lots of oboe music, salsa and Colombian Vallenato.

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us.
I left home when I was 14 years old, because there were no oboe teachers in my home town – I had just taken some lessons with a clarinet player because my parents didn’t know exactly what an oboe was. But they supported me in going to Bogotá, to live alone and learn how to play the oboe just because I wanted to do that.