Francesco Piemontesi is a Swiss pianist.
Born in 1983 in Locarno,[1] he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Arie Vardi[2][3] before closely collaborating with Alfred Brendel.[4] He rose to international prominence with prizes at several major competitions, including the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.[5] In 2009 he was awarded the fellowship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.[6] From 2009 to 2011 he was chosen as a BBC New Generation Artist.[7] In 2012, Piemontesi was announced as Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali music festival in Ascona,[8] and received the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer Award for his Recital disc with works by Haendel, Brahms, Bach and Liszt.[9] Since 2012 he records exclusively for the French label Naïve Classique.[10] Since 2019 he records for the Pentatone label. He currently lives in Berlin.[11]
Francesco Piemontesi has given concerts with major ensembles worldwide: Cleveland Orchestra,[12] London Philharmonic Orchestra,[13][14] Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra,[15] City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,[16] NHK Symphony Orchestra,[17] Gewandhausorchester Leipzig,[18] Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,[19] RSB[20] and DSO[21] Berlin. He has performed with such conductors as Zubin Mehta,[22] Roger Norrington,[23] Charles Dutoit,[24] Jiří Bělohlávek,[25] Stanisław Skrowaczewski,[26] Vladimir Ashkenazy,[27] Ton Koopman[28] and Marek Janowski,[29] and has appeared in many international music festivals including the BBC Proms,[30] Edinburgh International Festival,[31] Aix-en-Provence Festival[32] and Mostly Mozart Festival.[33]