Born in 1983 in Switzerland, Francesco Piemontesi studied with Nora Doallo in Lugano and with Arie Vardi in Hannover. He 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, Alexis Weissenberg and Mitsuko Uchida.

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, Zurich Tonhalle and New York Carnegie Hall. Martha Argerich personally invited him to her festival in Lugano where he now appears every year, while other festival appearances have included Roque d'Anthéron, Klavierfest Ruhr, Rheingau and Schleswig Holstein. 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, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin and Ravel. He has performed as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, RSI Lugano, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Tonkünstler Orchestra, London Mozart Players and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, collaborating with such conductors as Vasily Petrenko, Mikhail Pletnev, Christoph Poppen, Dimitry Kitajenko, Paul Goodwin, Lawrence Foster and Bruno Weil.

Highlights of the coming seasons include Piemontesi’s debuts with the BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg and a tour with Zubin Mehta and the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He appears at London’s Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms in 2010, makes debuts at the Concertgebouw, City of London Festival and Cheltenham Festival, and gives recitals in Munich, Paris, Florence and Milan.

Piemontesi nurtures a particular artistic interest in chamber music. He has played with Yuri Bashmet, Heinrich Schiff, Renaud und Gautier Capuçon, Jörg Widmann and the Ebène quartet. For the past two seasons, he has been artistic director of the Bellinzona chamber music festival.

Piemontesi has recorded for EMI Classics as part of the Martha Argerich and Friends series, and has released this year his first recording for Claves Records: a two-CD set of works by Robert Schumann.

Francesco Piemontesi is represented by Intermusica. June 2010 / 360 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

Repertoire with Orchestra:

BBC Proms recital / Debussy, Schumann
“They (Francesco Piemontesi and the Navarra Quartet) launched into Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major with such assurance that they might have been collaborating for years... Piemontesi and the Navarras gave it the requisite declamatory spaciousness from the start. As with Schumann’s piano concerto proper, this work involves constant dialogue between soloist and ensemble: with Piemontesi leading the way, they made a thrilling journey through an emotional landscape by turns sweet, spooky, throbbingly combustible, and liberatingly joyous...Piemontesi – one of the BBC’s New Generation artists – is a brand-leader for Debussy: using a completely different palette from the one he revealed in the Schumann, he gave a series of preludes the most exquisitely translucent characterisation.”
Michael Church, The Independent, July 2010

City of London Festival recital / Bach, Tognetti & Schumann
“In Bach's 1st Partita, Piemontesi's tender moulding of the phrases and meditative tempos gave the impression of a musing, introverted performer. But later he slipped in witty moments of improvised ornamentation, which hinted at something potentially wild in this studious-looking young man.

In Schumann's eccentric, Spanish-tinged 1st sonata, it burst out again with full force. Here Piemontesi seemed a different man, throwing off Schumann's Scherzo at breakneck speed, injecting an ostentatious swagger into the theatrical episodes, and making the twist and turns of the finale seem both disturbingly weird and completely necessary.”
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, July 2010

Further reviews
"This extraordinary pianist's performance was emblematic of his entire program. Mr. Piemontesi is absolutely fearless. His programm started and ended with the familiar (Mozart and Chopin). But in between were works that were unfamiliar, technically challenging, and which could have been tossed off with the confident lightness of genius. That, though, is hardly the way Mr. Piemontesi works. In fact, the inner passionate voices which he obviously feels are transported directly to his piano, with no barriers for the audience. The two-movement Janácek, rescued from the river, gave clear evidence of the pianist's emotional mentality. And while Jancèek may have thought the Sonata unworthy (he threw it into the Danube), when played by Piemontesi, this writer—and I daresay most of the Weill Hall audience—was mesmerized. While Stravinsky made several piano versions of his ballets, the Firebird, arranged by a student of Busoni, was new, and breathtaking. By the finale, I was listening to voices which I'd never heard in the orchestra (and checked with my orchestral score later that they really were there).

The next two works were a fairly well known Prelude by Henri Dutilleux and a world premiere. The Dutilleux became a series of mirrors and resonances, themes peeping out from the digital roughage, hiding, darting in reverse a minute later. The world premiere by Eric Tanguy was a Toccata, a terrific showpiece which had the right musician to show it.Finally was Chopin's Third Sonata, starting with a most majestic opening, and a wonderful finale again with those bass melodies sometimes leading on the whizzing top notes. The Scherzo, though, was most memorable, the fingers glistening over the key, but leaving as much room for the poetry as the panache.”
Concerto, January 2009

“From the beginning he played Mozart's B flat Sonata with boundless energy and understanding of rhetoric. Piemontesi chose to continue the program with Beethoven's late piano sonata in A flat major, opus 110, which presents several technical difficulties in both slow movements and in the final fugue. And what command Piemontesi displayed, how impressive his singing tone right at the beginning of the sonata. After the interval three Preludes of Debussy, glorious play of colour, quiet and thoughtful brooding juxtaposed against powerful explosions of sound. Then three dances from Stravinsky's Firebird, which Piemontesi executed with not only strictness of form, but also with picturesque, declamatory pianism.

On his birthday he gave himself and his listeners the most beautiful gift. Without a doubt a happy choice by the direction of the Festival."
Fono Forum, April 2008

"Piemontesi left an immaculate impression. His satin-like touch in Mozart's third B flat sonata created a light and brilliant flow. He approaches the demanding first movement of Beethoven's A flat sonata with restraint and lightness, reminiscent of Mozart; he convinces the listener in the forward-driving chordal passages of the fast movements by his pianistic mastery. Similarly virtuosic and rhythmic, he mastered Stravinsky's Three Dances from The Firebird."
Nord-Rhein-Zeitung, July 2007

"Now and again miracles happen and a small musical miracle took place on Friday evening. In the great hall of the Saarlandischer Rundfunk the 37 year old Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård swung the baton joyfully and the 23 year old Swiss Italian Francesco Piemontesi dived with devotion into the sound cascades of Grieg's piano concerto. With a brilliant technique he employed the entire breadth of atmosphere, from sheer power to sensitive, refined lyricism."
Saarbrücker Zeitung, June 2006