Francesco Piemontesi

Swiss-Italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi, a native of Locarno, has over the years gained a reputation as one of the leading interpreters of the German classical and romantic repertoire. He appears as a regular guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras, in concert halls and music festivals around the globe, while still being firmly anchored on the shores of Lago Maggiore as Artistic Director of the music festival Settimane Musicali di Ascona.
His playing is characterized by sensitivity, intimacy and poetry, but also by power and brilliance.

Highlights of the 2023/24 season include appearances with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and New York Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt, the Swedish Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu, Wiener Symphoniker under Joana Mallwitz and tours with the Dresden Philharmonic under Pablo Gonzales and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Jérémie Rhorer. Francesco Piemontesi will return to the Festival Aix-en-Provence and the Schubertiade and will play recitals at Wigmore Hall London, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Teatro di San Carlo Naples.

Francesco Piemontesi’s musical artistry is documented on numerous recordings that have received awards and critical acclaim. He recently has been Artist in Residence with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Dresden Philharmonic and Gstaad Menuhin Festival. A long-standing relationship links him to the Schubertiade Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall. As adept on the concert stage as he is in smaller chamber combinations, Francesco Piemontesi appears with a variety of partners including Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Martha Argerich, Janine Jansen, Daniel Müller-Schott, Augustin Hadelich and Jörg Widmann.

As a soloist, he has played alongside leading orchestras such as Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Roma, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Chicago, Boston, London and NHK Symphony orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra as well as the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich. He regularly collaborates with distinguished conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Fabio Luisi, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Gatti, Lorenzo Viotti, Robin Ticciati, Iván Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Marek Janowski, Joana Mallwitz, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Zubin Mehta and Nathalie Stutzmann.
Francesco Piemontesi travels the world and has appeared in many prestigious venues including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall New York and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. As a welcomed guest he was featured in the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, Lucerne, Verbier and Schleswig-Holstein as well as in La Roque d’Anthéron, New York Mostly Mozart, Klavierfestival Ruhr and the BBC Proms.