Kanaka classical musician available for business and social events.
BIOGRAPHY
Vincenzo Keawe Calcagno is currently pursuing a master’s degree with Ettore Causa at the Yale School of Music. He received his bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory.
In Summer 2025, Vincenzo joined the Verbier Festival Academy, where he participated in masterclasses with Antoine Tamestit, Lawrence Power, Máté Szücs, Isabel Charisius, Ilya Gringolts, and Gábor Takács-Nagy and played in solo and chamber concerts. Earlier the same summer, he attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, where he had the great privilege of performing with legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman.
In previous summers, Vincenzo has studied at the Taos School of Music, the Perlman Music Program (the “Littles Program”), and the Music Academy of the West, where he was invited to work intensively with the Takács Quartet and served as principal violist of the Academy Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Anthony Parnther.
An expressive and versatile musician, Vincenzo has performed recitals featuring works by British composers, and collaborating with guitar, works by Schubert, Piazzolla, and Fauré. He served as principal violist in the Juilliard Orchestra’s performance of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, led by music director Jeffrey Milarsky. With his string quartet, he was selected to participate and perform in the Master Class Series at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with the Calidore Quartet and perform at Carnegie Hall in A Celebration of Meredith Monk.
He is tremendously grateful to have had the opportunity to also study with luminaries such as Cynthia Phelps and Richard O’Neill, received chamber music coaching from Merry Peckham, Darrett Adkins, Molly Carr, Joseph Lin, Robert McDonald, Martin Beaver, and Rainer Honeck, and has played in masterclasses for Hartmut Rohde, Richard O’Neill, Karen Dreyfus, Kim Kashkashian, Toby Appel, the Cavani Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Takács Quartet.
Vincenzo comes from a long line of Kanaka (Native Hawaiian) musicians and entertainers and grew up surrounded by his family’s music, along with the diverse sounds of the San Francisco Bay Area. The first person in his family to pursue a career in classical music, Vincenzo commenced his musical training with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, as a chorister and soloist, and sang with the San Francisco Opera Chorus in their production of Mefistofele. Not long after, he began his studies in violin and soon after discovered the compelling and rich sonority of the viola in his school’s orchestra and chamber music program. At 15, Vincenzo was accepted into the studio of Helen Callus, Professor of Viola at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, whose mentorship inspired him to fully dedicate himself to the viola and played a pivotal role in shaping his musical path.
