A violist of international reputation, Roberto Díaz holds the prestigious position of President and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music. He follows thereby in the footsteps of renowned soloist/directors such as Rudolf Serkin, Gary Graffman, Efrem Zimbalist and Josef Hofmann. As a professor of viola at Curtis and former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Díaz has already had a significant impact on American musical life and continues to do so in his dual roles as performer and educator.

Some of Mr. Díaz’s recent and upcoming performances include the Minnesota Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä, Kansas City Symphony with Michael Stern, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias (Spain) and Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais (Brazil) with Krzysztof Penderecki, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico and the Louisiana Philharmonic with Carlos Miguel Prieto, Orquesta de Valencia with Yaron Traub, Orquesta Simfónica de Barcelona with James Judd, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra with Gabor Ötvös, and the Bilbao Symphony with Juanjo Mena. Recent and upcoming recital performances include appearances at the Gardner Museum in Boston, Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Indiana at Bloomington, the Detroit Chamber Music Society, and the Festival Cultural de Mayo in Guadalajara. Mr. Díaz has also performed with the National Symphony, Boston Pops, New World Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Saarbrücken Radio Orchestra, and the Orquesta Simón Bolivar, among many others. He has collaborated with conductors such as Roberto Abbado, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Christopher Hogwood, Yakov Kreizberg, Peter Oundjian, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gilbert Varga, Hugh Wolff and David Zinman. In addition to Mr. Penderecki, Roberto Díaz has also worked with important 20th- and 21st-century composers, including Edison Denisov, Roberto Sierra, and Ricardo Lorenz whose viola concerto, Canciones de Jara, he premiered in October 2010.  Future collaborations on solo viola repertoire include Jennifer Higdon and David Stock.

Mr. Díaz has several recordings on the Naxos label, including Brahms sonatas with Jeremy Denk, works by Henri Vieuxtemps for viola and piano, Jonathan Leshnoff’s Double Concerto with Michael Stern, violinist Charles Wetherbee, and the Iris Chamber Orchestra, and a 2006 recording of viola transcriptions by William Primrose which was nominated for a Grammy Award.  New World Records released a live recording of Mr. Díaz’s performance of Jacob Druckman's Viola Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Wolfgang Sawallisch.  Recordings scheduled for the 12-13 season include the Walton viola concerto with the New Haven Symphony and the Lieberson viola concerto for Bridge Records.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Díaz has performed with artists such as the Emerson and Tokyo string quartets, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Christoph Eschenbach, Yo-Yo Ma, Mr. Sawallisch, and Isaac Stern. His festival appearances include Marlboro, Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, Spoleto, Kuhmo, and Verbier, among many others. Mr. Díaz is a frequent guest artist at Tanglewood and the Banff Music Festival as well as appearing as an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Montecito Music Festival.  As a member of the Díaz Trio, with violinist Andrés Cárdenes and cellist Andrés Díaz, he has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Chile.  Mr. Díaz received an Honorary Doctorate from Bowdoin College and was awarded an Honorary Membership by the National Board of the American Viola Society.

In addition to his decade-long tenure as principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Roberto Díaz was principal viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner.