Biography
Harpsichordist and fortepianist, after obtaining his piano diploma at Genoa's Conservatory he has focused entirely on harpsichord and early music, attending Achille Berruti's courses at Piacenza's Conservatory and achieving the program's diploma. Subsequently he attended a number of courses in Italy and abroad, under the guidance of Bob van Asperen and Kenneth Gilbert, who awarded him a diploma of merit at Siena's Chigiana Academy.
Later on, he was admitted at the advanced courses of Christiane Jaccottet's class at Geneva's Conservatory, achieving the Prix de Virtuosité. He has stepped on stage for numerous concert performances both as soloist and as a part of chamber music ensembles, amongst whichL'Astrée - founded by him in 1991 - stands out. He has performed in Italy and abroad as soloist and withL'Astrée, invited by important associations and festivals such as: Turin's Unione Musicale, Settembre Musica, Piccolo Regio and Auditorium
del Lingotto; Rome's Oratorio del Gonfalone and Galleria Doria Pamphyli; Milan's Musica e Poesia a San Maurizio; Bologna's Associazione Clavicembalistica; Como's Autunno Musicale; Urbino's Early Music Festival; Perugia's Amici della Musica; Madrid's Auditorium Nacional de Musica; Strasburg's Early Music Festival; Versailles's Early Music Festival; Hagen's Festival; Edinburgh's Saint Cecilia Hall; Lousanne's Salle Paderewski and Orchestre de Chambre; Geneva's Conservatory; Boston's Early Music Society; New York's University and Frick Collection; Buenos Aires's Teatro Coliseo; Potsdam-Sans Soucis's Festival; and Innsbruck's Festwochen.
His keen interest in the rediscovery of Seventeenth and Eighteenth century Piedmontese authors has led him to carry out a series of important projects - both concerts and recordings - dedicated to authors who established themselves at Turin's royal court, and whose music is reposited in Piedmont. Amongst these projects, one deserves a special mention: with L'Astrée he has recorded three CDs with a wide range of music by Turin-born composer and violinist Gaetano Pugnani. Within the international project Vivaldi Edition, which has the goal of recording all of Vivaldi's manuscripts kept in Turin's National Library, he has recorded tracks dedicated to Antonio Vivaldi's concerts and chamber cantatas with the French house Naive-Opus 111, in cooperation with soloists such as Gemma Bertagnolli and Laura Polverelli.
With Opus 111 ha has also recorded a few quartets for harpsichord and strings by the Piedmontese composer Felice Giardini, as well as some quintets by the Neapolitan composer Tommaso Giordani. A few years ago he also began an intense cooperation with the magazine Amadeus, for which he has recorded, with violinist Francesco D'Orazio, Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord, Haendel's sonatas for violin and basso continuo and some of Haydn's trios for violin, fortepiano and cello.
During 2009 he will record, again for Amadeus, Bach's concerts for two harpsichords and strings in cooperation with harpsichordist Mariangiola Martello, with whom he has an artistic partnership focused on performing a rich repertoire for harpsichord duos and harpsichord and fortepiano duos. He owns a copy of a Taskin harpsichord of the second half of the Eighteenth century and a copy of a Ruckers harpsichord from the end of the Seventeenth century, both made by Michael Johnson, and he has recently bought a copy of an Anton Walter fortepiano (Wien,1805) made by Paul Mc Nulty.
Since 1994 he has been artistic director of Academia Montis Regalis, one of the most internationally renown baroque and classical orchestras with original instruments, and of Festival Armoniche Fantasie, a concert festival dedicated to early music, held yearly in Piedmont.
He is harpsichord professor at Turin's "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory.