Amnael Orozco-Diaz

I am a Mexican violist and cellist who had a start in music learning the violin in the streets of Mexico City while growing up. As a teenager, a fateful accident almost took my left hand, so I am now one of the few professional musicians who play left-handed. I have a very particular set of skills acquired over a long career.

I studied viola under Javier Montiel (from the Latinamerican String Quartet) at Ollin Yoliztli Music School in Mexico City. After being Concertmaster for several outreach projects in the city over the years, I got an appointment as 3rd chair viola at the Mexiquense Symphony Orchestra, later the Ollin Yoliztli Philharmonic Orchestra, and finally as Co-principal viola for the Texcoco Philharmonic Orchestra. 

In 2014, after the dissolution of that orchestra, I took a long and dangeorus voyage of self-discovery during which I produced most of the arrangements published in here, and developed the viola, cello, and vertical viola techniques I teach to this day. Fate took me to the UK, where in 2017 I returned to the concert halls as principal viola for the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, and since 2020 principal viola for the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra.