Diego Villalta is a Salvadoran-born, multidisciplinary artist working from Naarm/Melbourne. He migrated to Australia as a child as part of a large cohort of refugees fleeing the Salvadorian civil war (1979-1992).
He is a full-time performing musician, completing a Bachelor of Music Performance with Honours at the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) while concurrently developing his skills and techniques as a visual artist in a self-taught manner.
Diego was awarded by the Salvadoran Ministry of Foreign Affairs for work in the arts and in representing Salvadoran culture in Australia and at the international level 2019 . He has had successful solo exhibitions including BEAMS 2020 and WEAVES 2019 as well as numerous commission works including large-scale murals at Garf’s in Hampton and Cuff in Melbourne, stain glass design at St. Michael’s in Berwick, and musical album and promotional art for bands such as Fulton Street, Bayō and Lauren Schade
Diego lives and works in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, surrounded by the energy of the city and the dynamism of its creative scene.
AWARDS, TOURING/SHOW HIGHLIGHTS & REVIEWS
Bachelor of Music Performance with Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts/ Melbourne University
Footscray Community Arts Centre Artist in Resident (Pataphysics)
2012 Very West Winner
36th Concours Internationaux de Bourges / Netart“, IMEB Bourges / France and X Media Forum / 31st International Film Festival / Special Mention, Moscow / Russia for Spam the Musical, 2009
2003 Winner of the Art Victoria's Intergeneration Mentoring Project for the Arts Scheme
6th Annual UNESCO Phuket International Jazz Day Festival
Festivals - Sydney Opera House Homeground Festival
Back to back yearly Japan touring (Tokyo and Kansai regions)
Woodford Folk Festival
Falls Festival
Big sound Brisbane
St. Jerome's Laneway Festival Melbourne
Rainbow Serpent Festival
Wide Open Space Alice Springs
Thailand shows
St. Kilda Festival
Indonesia
White Night Melbourne
Peat's Ridge Sydney
Folk rhythm and life
Rise Festival
Melbourne International Jazz festival
Melbourne Women's International Jazz Festival
Darebin Music Feast
High Vibes
Balcony TV
Paynesville Music Festival
Stonington Jazz Festival
Channel 10 awards
Rip Curl Pro Surf Competition
"Barton and Villalta have made an album that contrasts a becalmed inner world with the chaos and beauty of the world that they see around them. That they have managed this in such a melodic and engrossing way suggests a greater constancy to jazz's restless spirit than any number of aspirational takes on the 'Great American Songbook,' but then each to their own. Highly recommended"
- Phil Barnes (All About Jazz)
"This new album, made up entirely of compositions by their guitarist Diego Villalta, is really, really good. I'm enjoying this immensely. Some beautiful playing here."
- Steve Robertson (3RPC, PBS FM)
"Fingers in pies, foot in doors and knee deep in the thick of Melbourne's music scene. Diego is the go-to man for getting it done and delivering that sweet riff."
- Miss P. (The House of Marc and Linker)
"Marks, who is a trumpeter as well as producer rapper and soul singer, in combination with his mate, jazz guitarist Diego Villalta, make a fusion of live instrumentation and beats that is surprisingly broad."
- C. Cobcroft (4ZZZ)
"Barton and Villalta have certainly produced a work of contraries and anyone with an open mind and two receptive ears should welcome this brave, sensitive and not infrequently brilliant music."
- Roger Farbey (All About Jazz)
