Yalyen Savignon
Executive Director
Born in Havana, Cuba, Yalyen Savignon began playing the violin at the age of eight and the piano at the age of ten at the Conservatorio de Música Guillermo Tomas. She continued her education at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory and became the concert teacher of her symphony orchestra. Yalyen has performed with the Camerata Romeu female chamber orchestra, as well as with the Chamber Orchestra of Havana and the Mozarteum Symphony Orchestra.
After arriving in the United States, she has performed with many symphonies orchestras in the state of Florida, including New World Symphony, Alhambra Orchestra, Miami Lyric Opera, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Treasure Coast Symphony, Symphony of the Americas, and Vero Beach Opera. She was the winner of the Lynn Concert Competition 2015 at the Lynn Conservatory of Music, where she completed her degree in Violin Performance.
Yalyen has completed a master’s degree in Violin Performance at Carnegie Mellon University with Professor Cyrus Forough and postgraduate studies at the University of Southern California with Martin Chalifour, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Yalyen is an avid chamber music performer. She has given many recitals in the The United States and has also performed with the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra as a member of the Project Inclusion String Quartet and with the Ars Longa baroque ensemble from Cuba and the Chatham Baroque ensemble in Pittsburgh.
She has worked as a Teaching Artist for the LA Philharmonic and YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles), Yalyen has taught violin and chamber music in the United States, Cuba, Chile, and Jamaica during different summer programs and festivals. She has traveled to Cuba since 2015 to deliver much-needed music supplies to the music schools in the country.
She is also the President and Executive Director of Volta Music Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that seeks to further music education in Latin American countries and provide the necessary supplies for music schools and conservatories. In this position, she oversees all Cultural exchange programs, Afterschool music programs in the U.S and The Havana Classical Music Fest (a festival for music students up to 18 years old in Cuba), and all the artistic strategies through which Volta Music Foundation expands access to classical music education in The United States and other Latin American countries.