Francesco Piemontesi

Born in 1983 in Switzerland, Francesco Piemontesi first came to international prominence as a prize winner in the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and through his close collaboration with the pianists Alfred Brendel, Cécile Ousset and Alexis Weissenberg. He studied with Nora Doallo in Lugano and with Arie Vardi in Hannover.

Soon after his participation in the Queen Elisabeth Competition Piemontesi was invited to perform at many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Vienna Musikverein, New York Carnegie Hall and Tokyo Suntory Hall. Martha Argerich personally invited him to her festival in Lugano where he now appears every year, while other festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, Schleswig Holstein, City of London Festival, Roque d'Anthéron, Lille, Cheltenham, Klavierfest Ruhr and Rheingau. In 2009, Francesco Piemontesi received a Fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, and was also announced as a BBC New Generation Artist.

As a concerto soloist, Piemontesi has quickly earned a superb reputation particularly for his interpretations of the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel. He has performed as soloist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Camerata Salzburg and the Vienna, Zurich and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. He has collaborated with such conductors as Jiri Belohlavek, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Manze, Vasily Petrenko, Mikhail Pletnev, Thierry Fischer, Christoph Poppen, Dimitry Kitajenko, Kazuki Yamada, Paul Goodwin, Lawrence Foster and Bruno Weil.

Highlights of the 11/12 season include Piemontesi’s debuts with the London Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as well a return to the Northern Sinfonia and a tour with Zubin Mehta and the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He will give recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lucerne Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron, Bad Kissingen Festival, Munich, Frankfurt, Prague, Madrid, Milan and Florence.

Piemontesi nurtures a particular artistic interest in chamber music. He has played with Renaud und Gautier Capuçon, Emmanuel Pahud, Heinrich Schiff, Jörg Widmann, Antoine Tamestit, Veronika Eberle, Daniel Mueller-Schott and the Ebène Quartet.

Piemontesi has recorded for EMI Classics as part of the Martha Argerich and Friends series, released a highly acclaimed Schumann recording for Claves Records and most recently a recital CD for avanticlassic with works by Handel, Brahms, Bach and Liszt.

Photo © Marco Borggreve