Francesca Dego
Celebrated for her sonorous tone, compelling interpretations and flawless technique, Francesca Dego is one of the most sought after young violinists on the international scene. Recently signed to Chandos Records, her first disc on the label honours the legacy of Niccolò Paganini with a recording of works inspired by the great violinist and performed on his violin, the fabled “Il Cannone”. Past releases include her highly acclaimed first concerto disc featuring concertos by Paganini and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari alongside the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Daniele Rustioni in 2017, the recital disc Suite Italienne, as well as a complete survey of the violin sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven and of Paganini’s Caprices, all for Deutsche Grammophon.

Born in Lecco, Italy, to Italian and American parents, Francesca regularly appears with major orchestras worldwide, and recent and forthcoming highlights include performances with the Philharmonia, Hallé, Ulster, Royal Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestras, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova at St Petersburg’s renowned Stars of the White Nights festival, Teatro Regio di Torino, Orquestra de Sevilla and de la Comunitat Valenciana at Palau de les Arts, Auckland Philharmonia, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Symphony, Het Gelders Orkest, and the Orkest van het Oosten.

In Italy, this season’s highlights include opening the prestigious MITO Settembre Musica Festival with Milan’s “La Verdi” Orchestra in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher, returns to the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, and to the main season of the “La Verdi” orchestra. She will also appear in recital at the Festival Valle d’Itria, and perform at the Gravedona Chamber Music Festival, which was co-founded by Francesca in 2018.

Her international career to date has allowed her to work alongside many esteemed conductors, Sir Roger Norrington, Fabio Luisi, Karen Durgaryan, Christopher Franklin, Lionel Bringuier, Dalia Stasevska, Paul Goodwin, Christopher Hogwood, Yoel Levi, Donato Renzetti, Grant Llewellyn, Wayne Marshall, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Diego Matheuz, Shlomo Mintz, Gemma New, Alpesh Chauhan and Xian Zhang, to name a few.

An outstanding collaborative artist, Francesca thrives in chamber settings, and she has performed with Salvatore Accardo, Alessandro Carbonare, Mahan Esfahani, Bruno Giuranna, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Piers Lane, Jan Lisiecki, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Martin Owen, Roman Simovic and Kathryn Stott, as well as her regular recital partner, pianist Francesca Leonardi. Highlights of the 2020/21 season for the duo include performances at the Louvre in Paris, Lincoln Center New York, Washington DC, Siena, as well as the final concerts of their complete cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas at Unione Musicale, Torino.

Francesca is the winner of numerous national and international competitions, and in 2008 attracted widespread attention for being the first Italian female prize-winner of the renowned “Paganini Competition” in Genoa since 1961. In addition she was awarded the “Enrico Costa” prize for having been the youngest finalist. She was selected to perform as soloist at the 2014 and 2015 Remembrance Day concerts in Rome, broadcast worldwide by RAI. In June 2014 she performed at Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal at the opening of the Football World Cup in Brazil. She is a frequent contributor to specialist music magazines, penning a monthly column for Suonare News among others, and has written articles and opinion pieces for the BBC and Classical Music Magazines, The Strad, Musical Opinion and Strings Magazine. Francesca has also recently published her first book, Tra le Note. Classica: 24 chiavi di lettura, with Mondadori in which she explores how classical music can be listened to and better understood today.

Francesca is based in London, and plays on a precious Francesco Ruggeri violin (Cremona 1697).

Sir Roger Norrington
For 50 years Roger Norringtonhas been at the forefront of the movement for historically informed musical performance. He has sought to put modern musicians in touch with the style of the music they play. Roger Norrington sang and played the violin from a young age and began to conduct while at Cambridge. He also studied history at Westminster School and English literature at Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar, and later at the Royal College of Music in London under Adrian Boult.

His Heinrich Schütz Choir, founded in 1962, made many recordings and his London Classical Players, founded in 1978, achieved worldwide fame with their dramatic CDs of the Beethoven symphonies, as well as many other works.

As early as 1969, Roger Norrington was made music director of Kent Opera. He conducted hundreds of performances for the company and went on to work at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera, La Scala, Milan, La Fenice in Venice and the Vienna State Opera.

Roger Norrington is a frequent guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has had memorable tenures as chief conductor with the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (13 years), the Salzburg Camerata (ten years) and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (five years). Other permanent posts include being chief conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta and music director of the Orchestra of St Luke’s in New York. He is currently conductor emeritus in Stuttgart, Salzburg and Zurich and of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

He has made over 150 recordings. Roger Norrington was knighted in June 1997 and is, among other distinctions, an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Royal College of Music.

Francesca Leonardi
is the first Italian female pianist to record for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, recently completing a recording of the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with regular violin collaborator of fourteen years, Francesca Dego. In October 2018 the duo’s most recent disc was released worldwide, a project marking a journey through 20th century music inspired by Italy and including world premiere recordings of three works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Performing in public from a young age, pianist Francesca Leonardi regularly appears in prestigious venues and festivals around the world. In 2015 she was a part of the Remembrance Day performance in the Santa Cecilia Hall of the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, broadcast worldwide by RAI. Other distinguished performances include Sala Verdi and Teatro dal Verme in Milan, Royal Albert Hall in London, “Les Flâneries Musicales” Festival in Reims, “Accademia Chigiana” in Siena and Politeama Theatre in Palermo for the Opening of the “Amici della Musica” season. Highlights of the last season included a trio tour and performances of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto alongside the Budapest MAV Orchestra, Laura Bortolotto and Amedeo Cicchese. The live recording of one of the performances was published as a supplement to the music magazine “Amadeus” in August 2018. In Summer 2019 Francesca completed a US tour that also included a performance at the prestigious Ravinia Festival in Chicago.

From her earliest years Francesca has earned distinction in many national and international competitions, winning 14 first prizes, and in 2011, she was awarded the Phoebe Benham Junior Fellow in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music. She gave her solo début aged 16 performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major with the Rosetum Orchestra and has since been invited to join many Italian and international orchestras as a soloist. She has toured Japan, China, the US, and South America, where she performed at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, for the “Semana musical Llao Llao” in Bariloche, and Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro for the opening ceremony of the Football World Cup in 2014, on a number of occasions. Francesca is actively involved in the field of chamber music performance and regularly performs with instrumentalists and singers such as Bruno Giuranna, Laura Marzadori, Sonig Tchakerian, Susanne Hou, Nigel Clayton, Jacopo di Tonno, Martin Owen, Alfredo Zamarra, Laura Bortolotto, Andrea Cicchese, Andrea Giuffredi and Andrea Oliva.

Francesca has performed in many live broadcasts on RAI Radio and TV, Tv2000, Radio Classica, the Italian Swiss Radio, the Vatican Radio and selections from her CDs were included in the soundtrack of the 2008 film “The beautiful Truth” by prize-winning director Steven Kroschel. Her first solo recording, Debussy’s Second Book of Preludes and Chopin’s Andante Spianato e Grande Polonaise, was released by “Classica Viva” Musical Editions in May 2007.

Born in Milan in 1984, Francesca began studying the piano at the age of three under the guidance of Graziella Bianchi and Paolo Bordoni. She graduated from the Milan Conservatoire in 2004 with top marks, cum laude, and special mention. She continued her studies at the Musical Academy in Pescara, at the Chigiana Academy in Siena and at the Royal College of Music in London where she was awarded both a Master’s in Performance and an Artist Diploma in Piano Accompaniment with Distinction in 2012, under Nigel Clayton and Roger Vignoles, and generously supported by The Gordon Calway Stone Memorial Award.

From a very early age Francesca showed enthusiasm and passion for teaching and following this passion has become a chamber music tutor at the “Cantelli” Conservatoire in Novara, Italy.