Brazilian cellist, pedagogue, and composer Bianca d’Avila do Prado is cello faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and online instructor for the University of Idaho Preparatory Division. She coordinates the MIC Third Coast Suzuki Strings, a tuition-free cello program for the Hispanic community in Evanston, IL.

Ms. Prado holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance and String Pedagogy degree from Illinois State University. At ISU, she completed her cello studies under Dr. Adriana Ransom and Dr. Cora Swenson-Lee. She continues her Suzuki pedagogy training as part of Dr. Tanya Carey’s studio.

Bianca actively works on making Brazilian music for strings more accessible and performed in the US and has published articles about that in The Scroll and the American String Teacher Magazine. She was commissioned by the New Canon Project to compose Valsa para Sofia for strings and by the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium to write Suite Pequenina for cello solo. Her composition Brazilian Habanera was published as part of the Mosaic: A Collection of String Music for Black and Latino Composers.