Mario Brunello
In 1986 Mario Brunello was the first Italian ever to win the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, which launched him into a stunning international career. Brunello has played with some of the most prestigious orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, NHK Symphony Tokyo, Kioi Sinfonietta, Filarmonica della Scala, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, DSO Berlin. He has collaborated with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Antonio Pappano, Manfred Honeck, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Vladimir Jurowski, Ton Koopman, Daniele Gatti, John Axelrod, Myung-Whun Chung, Seiji Ozawa and Claudio Abbado. Abbado has, over the years, invited Brunello several times to play with him and the Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival and the Mozart Orchestra. With both orchestras, Brunello has appeared as a soloist and as a conductor.

He often takes on the double roles of conductor and soloist, and in 1994 he founded the Orchestra d'Archi Italiana with whom he tours intensively both in Italy and abroad.

Chamber music plays an important role in his artistic life and he collaborates with artists including Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Isabelle Faust, Yuri Bashmet, Maurizio Pollini, Valery Afanassiev, Andrea Lucchesini, and the Hugo Wolff Quartet.

Brunello also devotes much time to projects involving diverse art forms (literature, philosophy, science, theatre). Through new ways of communication, he tries to attract new audiences, creating interactive performances of music, images and words. A large number of these activities take place in Antiruggine, a remodelled workshop that is ideal for these experiments.

His recordings include Dvorak Cello Concerto recorded live in Rome with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Antonio Pappano (EMI), Beethoven Triple Concerto w i t h t h e M o z a r t Orchestra and Claudio Abbado (DGG) and a five-CD box set entitled “Brunello Series" on Egea Records containing: “Odusia” a CD dedicated to the Mediterranean culture, “Brunello and Vivaldi” dedicated to Vivaldi Cello Concertos, “Violoncello and” a CD with contemporary works for solo cello, “Schubert e Lekeu” with the pianist Andrea Lucchesini and a double CD with a new recording of Bach Cello Suites, this last awarded w i t h the “Italian Critic Award 2 0 10”.

The most recent release is a DVD of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto n. 2 recorded live at Salle Pleyel in Paris with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra.

2016/17 season highlights include appearances in many of the world’s most prestigious venues: Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro La Scala in Milan with Myung-whun Chung and La Filarmonica. This season also sees performances at Die Glocke in Bremen, Philipszaal in Eindhoven, National Gallery in London. Brunello returns to Tokyo and Nagoya with an important project for the winners of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition.

Brunello has been Artist-in-Residence at MiTo Festival 2016, where he performed six concerts, two of them both as a conductor and soloist with Turin Filarmonica.

In 2017 he will start an ambitious project celebrating J.S. Bach’s string music, exploring the complete Bach Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas originally for violin, performed on the cello piccolo.

Mario Brunello plays a precious Maggini cello from the 1600s.