Francesca Dego

Italian American violinist Francesca Dego is celebrated for her compelling interpretations and flawless technique.

Recent engagement highlights include North American appearances with Dallas Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Fabio Luisi; St Louis Symphony Orchestra with John Storgårds; Houston Symphony with Andrés Orozco-Estrada playing Brahms Concerto; National Symphony at both the Kennedy Center in Washington and Wolf Trap Festival; Detroit Symphony; San Diego Symphony; Indianapolis Symphony; Utah Symphony; Vancouver Symphony and NACO Ottawa. On the world stage, Francesca has performed with NHK Symphony; Tokyo Symphony; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony; West Australian Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia and Queensland Symphony. Recent European highlights have included Orchestre de Champs Elysées with Philippe Herreweghe; Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille; Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Orquesta de Castilla y León; Luxembourg Philharmonic; Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne; Brucknerhaus Linz; Swedish Radio Symphony; Bergen Philharmonic; London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre; Philharmonia; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Hallé; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the top Italian orchestras.

Francesca’s 2025/26 season includes debuts with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto conducted by Jonathon Heyward, Seattle Symphony and Austria’s Erl Festspiele with Busoni’s Violin Concerto, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and The Phoenix Symphony, with Xian Zhang, Dortmunder Philharmoniker with Brahms Violin Concerto, and Granada Symphony and Enescu Philharmonic with Barber’s Violin Concerto. She returns to Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Teatro Carlo Felice Orchestra. Francesca will be resident at Wigmore Hall in the 2026-27 season where she will perform in chamber music and in recital with world premieres of two new works composed especially for her.

In 2023 Francesca made her recording debut with the London Symphony Orchestra as the first artist to be featured on Apple Classical in A New Dawn featuring Bologne’s Chevalier de St Georges Concerto No. 2 alongside Jonathon Heyward. She regularly collaborates with esteemed conductors, amongst them Fabio Luisi, Philippe Herreweghe, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Ludovic Morlot, John Storgårds, Daniele Rustioni, Lionel Bringuier, Dalia Stasevska, Markus Stenz, Donato Renzetti, Gemma New, Jader Bignamini, Alpesh Chauhan, Asher Fisch, Kahchun Wong, Markus Poschner, Krzysztof Urbański, and Xian Zhang.

A keen chamber musician, Francesca enjoys performing with artists including Francesco Piemontesi, Daniel Müller-Schott, Timothy Ridout, Jan Lisiecki, Salvatore Accardo, Alessandro Carbonare, Mahan Esfahani, Bruno Giuranna, Shlomo Mintz, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Federico Colli, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Martin Owen, Alessandro Taverna, Enrico Dindo, Alessio Bax, Roman Simovic and Francesca Leonardi.

Francesca is signed exclusively to Chandos Records. With a growing discography, her most recent recording of the violin concertos of Busoni and Brahms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dalia Stasevska was released in March 2024, for which she was awarded the prestigious Franco Abbiati Prize. Her recordings of the complete Mozart violin concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Sir Roger Norrington received unanimous critical acclaim, including BBC Music Magazine five star ‘Record of the month’. Other releases on Chandos include the recital disc Il Cannone with previous releases on Deutsche Grammophon including concertos by Paganini and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and a complete survey of the violin sonatas by Beethoven and Paganini’s Caprices.

Francesca also has a passion for contemporary music and is proud to be a dedicatee of works by Michael Nyman, Carlo Boccadoro, Nicola Campogrande, Francesco Antonioni, Silvia Colasanti, Fabio Vacchi and Giovanni Sollima, amongst others. In 2025 she created the ambitious project “Feathers in time”, which commissions ten of the most important living Italian composers to write solo violin works for her inspired by the poetry of her father, the late Italian poet Giuliano Dego. She contributes to specialist music magazines including Suonare News and Archi, and has written articles and opinion pieces for The Strad, BBC and Classical Music Magazines, Musical Opinion, and Strings Magazine.  Francesca has published her first book with Mondadori — Tra le Note. Classica: 24 chiavi di lettura — in which she explores the relevance, application, and deeper understanding of classical music in the modern day.

Francesca plays on a fine Antonio Stradivari violin on loan from J & A Beare.

Artist website: www.francescadego.com

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