“Silence is an indispensable condition for the appearance of sound, to make the verb habitable. When language could not express the deepest human abysses, music emerged as a privileged way to bring us into contact with the mystical, with the transcendent element of reality. Thus the musical ritual was born, where word and melody meet to enter a space where spirits and gods are honoured, where the unknown and even the forbidden are invoked. The ritual is a sacred and protected ceremonial, a symbolic place where human beings congregate to access the unmanifested, that which likes to be hidden. Music is the heart of the ritual, the beat which gives life and lights up the rhythms of the ceremony. But if the ritual is the map, it is so because it also indicates the limits, everything which is beyond our understanding. The ritual is the door to the mysterious, and music is the vehicle leading us to this terra incognita. That is why music ends up surrendering to the empire of silence, and its journey concludes in it. Music is ritual because it is the only language which brings us back to the condition of all that is possible. Music is ritual because it is the only language telling us about the impossible.” – Carlos Javier González Serrano

Hailed by The Strad as “an artist who risks” and described by Pizzicato Magazine as “a sensitive artist who knows how to immerse in the depths of music”, her passion for promoting the viola combined with her charismatic and expressive performances, and her beauty of sound, make Isabel Villanueva one of the most valued and complete violists of today.

Since her debut at 18 performing Bartók Viola Concerto with the Radio Television Spanish Symphony Orchestra, she has developed an global career. She is regularly invited as a soloist with orchestras performing a wide range of repertoire including more than 30 viola concertos from baroque to contemporary music. Solo performances include important venues and festivals such as the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Royal Court Theatre in Copenhagen, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, and Wigmore Hall in London. She has been involved in collaborating and premiering more than 20 new works for viola, many of which are dedicated to her.

2023 saw the release of her second album, Ritual for viola solo. Comprising music over 1000 years from Hildegard von Bingen to György Kurtág, it has quickly got attention from media and was nominated to the prestigious ICMA Awards 2024 as “Best Instrumental Solo”. She presents this material in a concert that reveals the intersections of silence, sound and transcendence, and offers a unique opportunity to experience music as a sacred and transformative rite.