French Violist Aurélien Pétillot, is the newly appointed viola faculty at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he also teaches 19th century Music History, Music history from 1750 to the present, and Music understanding. The founder and artistic director of the critically acclaimed concert series Viola by Choice, he has garnered much esteem as a versatile and engaging performer, lecturer, and pedagogue. He has given solo and chamber music performances throughout Europe and North America, on both modern and baroque Violas. He is the winner of the 1997 and 1998 City of Paris Chamber Music Competition, and of the 1998 City of Paris Viola Competition. He holds a Bachelor’s in musicology and performance from the Sorbonne University of Paris, a Master’s from the Mannes College of Music, in New York, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In Austin, Dr. Pétillot was a faculty artist with the Austin Chamber Music Center since 2000, and taught at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor while maintaining a successful private studio. He also played  regularly with the Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Victoria symphony orchestras, as well as the Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin. Recent engagements have included guest soloist appearances with the new music ensemble Sound Inversions, the American Repertory Ensemble, the Texas Bach Choir, the Balcones Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale as well as a tour with the only professional string octet in America, The Young Eight. His lecture/recital entitled Death Symbolism as Creative Hallmark in Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, based on his doctoral thesis, has been presented in various universities in America and in France as part of the commemorations celebrating the 100th anniversary of Shostakovich’s birth. Other lectures have dealt with humor in music and the inter-relationships between the arts.