Biography
Born in Caracas, Edward Pulgar is a violinist and conductor from the National Youth Orchestra System of Venezuela. He began his musical studies at age eight in solfège, percussion and violin at the Youth Orchestra's Academy and city of Coro's School of Music. At thirteen years old, he won his first violin competition at the V National Violin Competition in Venezuela. While continuing his studies in violin, he also began studies in orchestral conducting in the city of Maracaibo. He then moved to Caracas where he continued his studies in violin and conducting at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory of El Sistema, and the Latin-American Violin Academy under the guidance of the eminent Venezuelan pedagogue José Francisco del Castillo.
He made his debut as a conductor at age twenty with the Zulia Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. In 1999, he obtained a scholarship to study violin in the U.S., and earned an Artist Diploma and a Masters in Music Performance from the Universities of Duquesne and Michigan State.
Mr. Pulgar has appeared as a soloist and concertmaster with Symphonic Orchestras in Venezuela and South America, and more recently with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra at important concert halls such as Complejo Cultural Teresa Carreño of Caracas, Panama's National Theatre, Beethovensaal of Stuttgart and Bonn, Teatro Colón of Bogota, the PNC Recital Hall and Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Greenville, TN and the Knoxville Civic Auditorium, among others.
Currently, Mr. Pulgar is the Principal Second Violin of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Knoxville Symphony's Principal String Quartet, appearing throughout East Tennessee in recitals, concerts and radio and television appearances. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Strings at Carson-Newman University, and married to violinist Mary Pulgar and a proud parent of two daughters, Ana and Claudia. He eagerly continues to pursue solo and chamber music in the U.S. and Latin America along with guest appearances as conductor.