Photo: Davide Cerati

Francesca Dego

VIOLIN

Representation: General Management

Celebrated as both a recitalist and concerto performer of notable distinction, Francesca Dego is one of the most sought-after violinists on the international scene.

Her 22/23 season includes debuts with Orchestre de Champs Elysées with Mo. Herreweghe (Mendelssohn), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Busoni), National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (Mozart 5), North Carolina (Prokofiev 2), Sofia Philharmonic and Foroese Symphony Orchestras. She also returns to Indianapolis (Mozart 5) and Washington National Symphony Orchestras, Ulster Orchestra and Orchestra della Toscana with conductor Daniele Rustioni. She will perform in a special project at Dubai Opera House as well as making her much-anticipated debut in recital at the Wigmore Hall alongside pianist Alessio Bax. She will perform at the prestigious Ascona Festival alongside Francesco Piemontesi and Daniel Muller-Schott in an all-Brahms chamber programme.

Highlights of recent seasons include concerts across Japan with NHK Symphony conducted by Mo. Luisi, Bernstein’s Serenade at La Fenice, Orchestre Chambre de Lausanne, BBC Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra and La Verdi, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestras, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, NHK Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova at St Petersburg’s renowned Stars of the White Nights festival, Teatro Regio di Torino, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and all the major Italian orchestras, Orquestra de Sevilla and de la Comunitat Valenciana at Palau de les Arts, Auckland Philharmonia, Oviedo Philharmonic, Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Santa Barbara Symphony, Het Gelders Orkest, and the Orkest van het Oosten. Recitals at the Louvre in Paris, Lincoln Center New York and Washington DC.

She regularly collaborates with esteemed conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Fabio Luisi, Lionel Bringuier, Dalia Stasevska, Christopher Hogwood, Yoel Levi, Donato Renzetti, Jonathon Heyward, Wayne Marshall, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Diego Matheuz, Shlomo Mintz, Gemma New, Jader Bignamini, Alpesh Chauhan and Xian Zhang, to name a few.

Francesca is signed exclusively to CHANDOS Records and her recent release of Mozart Violin Concerti 3&4 conducted by Sir Roger Norrington with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was received to unanimous critical acclaim including BBC Music Magazine 5* ‘Record of the month’, with the next volume due to launch at the beginning of the 22/23 season. Other releases include concertos by Paganini and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari alongside the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Daniele Rustioni, the recital disc Il Cannone, as well as a complete survey of the violin sonatas by Beethoven and of Paganini’s Caprices, for Deutsche Grammophon.

A keen chamber musician, Francesca enjoys performing with artists such as Laura van der Heijden, Salvatore Accardo, Alessandro Carbonare, Mahan Esfahani, Bruno Giuranna, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Piers Lane, Jan Lisiecki, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Martin Owen, Alessandro Taverna, Roman Simovic and Kathryn Stott, Francesca Leonardi.

Francesca also has a passion for contemporary music and counts herself a dedicatee of the works of, amongst others, Michael Nyman, Carlo Boccadoro, Cristian Carrara, Nicola Campogrande and Marco Taralli. She is a frequent contributor to specialist music magazines, penning a monthly column for Suonare News among others, and has written articles and opinion pieces for the BBC and Classical Music Magazines, The Strad, Musical Opinion and Strings Magazine. Francesca has also recently published her first book, Tra le Note. Classica: 24 chiavi di lettura, with Mondadori in which she explores how classical music can be listened to and better understood today.

Francesca is based in London and plays on a rare Francesco Ruggeri violin (Cremona 1697).

Artist website: www.francescadego.com

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact James Brown Management to make sure you receive the most up to date version. Email: Andrea McDermott

PDF

Dego/Franklin, Orchestra del Teatro Verdi

Dego/Leonardi, Beethoven Sonatas Vol. 3

News

FRANCE TOUR: Francesca Dego

February 1st, 2023

Francesca Dego embarks upon a tour of France this week with Orchestre des Champs Elysées conducted by legendary conductor Philippe Herreweghe, featuring Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Recently returned from her sensational debut with Indianapolis Symphony, next week she travels back to the States for Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto with National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, conducted by Mo.…Read more ›

Francesca Dego debuts with LSO on Apple Music

January 9th, 2023

LSO and Apple Music have released “A New Dawn” a powerful collection of familiar and lesser-known works, featuring the star violinist Francesco Dego in Bologne’s Concerto Op.5 no.2 in A major, which was featured as Gramophone’s video of the day earlier this week. For Francesca, Bologne’s music is a fairly recent discovery. “When first introduced…Read more ›

Out now: Francesca Dego’s Mozart: Violin Concertos, Vol. 2 with Sir Roger Norrington

September 2nd, 2022

Francesca Dego and Sir Roger Norrington continue their critically acclaimed Mozart Violin concerti cycle, together with the outstanding musicians of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The cycle marks Sir Roger Norrington’s final recording project, and his first and only recording of the complete Mozart concerti. This second volume features Mozart’s First, Second and Fifth Violin…Read more ›

Out now!

February 25th, 2022

Today Francesca Dego releases her latest disc on CHANDOS with long time friend and collaborator, pianist Francesca Leonardi. This is the second in Francesca’s recent Mozart series, following the success of the disc featuring Sir Roger Norrington and Royal Scottish National Orchestra of Wales earlier this season. In this new album, Francesca takes us…Read more ›

Francesca Dego’s debut with NHK Symphony Orchestra

November 23rd, 2021

Francesca makes her long awaited debut with NHK Symphony Orchestra this month, led by their incoming principal conductor Fabio Luisi. Written in three movements, Paganini’s 1st Violin Concerto shows the Italian bel canto influence, particularly that of the younger contemporary Rossini, and the later audition of military band instruments gives the piece a distinct military…Read more ›

Reviews

“It’s a challenge to make [these concertos] sound fresh. Yet the youthful Francesca Dego and the seasoned, ever-questing Roger Norrington, on his last recording, achieve that in spades … Dego’s playing creates a spirit of delighted, sometimes whimsical improvisation … Norrington and the 25-strong RSNO keep the accompaniments buoyant, and gleefully seize on every opportunity for operatic dialogues with the soloist. This is chamber music writ large … a delectable album… If you think you’ve heard these concertos once too often, this could be just the tonic.” – Richard Wigmore, October 2022

Gramophone Magazine

“This recording is characterized by excellently balanced interpretations and a light-hearted and fluid gesture … these are distinctly eloquent, finely woven interpretations”

Mozart Violin Concertos 2

The follow up to their first collaboration, Francesca Dego and Sir Roger Norrington return to the studio for the third & fourth violin concertos, once again joined by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Notably, the first time either soloist or conductor has recorded the works. Of the first album, The Sunday Times noted ‘Pairing the veteran Mozartian Norrington – a pioneer of historical performance practice – with the young Italian-American soloist Dego proves inspiring in what promises to be one of the freshest of recent cycles of the Mozart concertos.’

CHANDOS (2022)

Mozart

Francesca Dego joins forces with the legendary conductor and period performance pioneer Sir Roger Norrington and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for this recording of Mozart’s Third and Fourth Violin Concertos – the first time either soloist or conductor has recorded the works.

CHANDOS (2021)

Il Cannone

Paganini’s violin, the legendary ‘il Cannone’, made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù in 1743, is one of the most important musical instruments in the history of Western music. It has been heard on record just a handful of times. Francesca Dego was given the honour of recording with it after the success of her first performance on the instrument, in October 2019, when she was invited to play Paganini’s First Violin Concerto at the Paganini Celebratory Concert at Teatro Carlo Felice, in Genoa.

CHANDOS (2021)

Full Discography