Francesca Dego

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

Her 2024/25 season includes debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Luisi with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. She also performs with the Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, La Verdi, Vancouver Symphony, Detroit and San Diego symphony orchestras, Orchestre de Cannes, and makes her debut with the Luxembourg Philharmonic at Flaneries Musicales de Reims. In recital, she appears at the Wigmore Hall with Alessandro Taverna, and Belfast International Chamber Festival and Dubai Opera with Francesca Leonardi.

Recent engagement highlights include debuts with Utah Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, West Australian Symphony, and Queensland Symphony orchestras, and re-invitations to the Hallé, City of Birminghma Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Haydn, and Brucknerhaus Linz. She has also appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan, and Tokyo Symphony orchestras, and in spring 2023 jumped in at short notice to make her Canadian debut with the orchestra of the National Arts Centre Ottawa. Recent European highlights include Bernstein’s Serenade at La Fenice, appearances with La Verdi; Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice; Oviedo Philharmonic; Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne; Orquestra de Sevilla and Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana; L’Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova; Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; and all the other major Italian orchestras, and at St Petersburg’s renowned Stars of the White Nights Festival, and the Teatro Regio di Torino. In Switzerland, Francesca has appeared with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Het Gelders Orkest, and the Orkest van het Oosten, with UK highlights of the season including the BBC Symphony, Ulster, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish National orchestras, as well as the National Youth Orchestra.

In 2023 she made her recording debut with the London Symphony Orchestra as the first artist to be featured on the new Apple Classical platform in ‘A New Dawn’ featuring Bologne’s Chevalier de St Georges Concerto No. 2 alongside conductor Jonathon Heyward. She regularly collaborates with esteemed conductors, amongst them Fabio Luisi, Philippe Herreweghe, Daniele Rustioni, Lionel Bringuier, Dalia Stasevska, Markus Stenz, Jonathan Heyward, Donato Renzetti, Gemma New, Jader Bignamini, Alpesh Chauhan, Asher Fisch, 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. Her recordings of the complete Mozart violin concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Sir Roger Norrington were received to unanimous critical acclaim, including BBC Music Magazine five star ‘Record of the month’. Other releases include the Mozart piano quartets with Federico Colli, Timothy Ridout, and Laura van der Heijden; 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. In June 2024 Chandos released an album of the horn trios of Brahms, Ligeti, Mozart, and Schumann, for which Francesca teamed up with Martin Owen, horn, and Alessandro Taverna, piano.

Francesca also has a passion for contemporary music and counts herself a dedicatee of the works of Michael Nyman, Carlo Boccadoro, Cristian Carrara, Nicola Campogrande, and Marco Taralli, amongst others. She is a frequent contributor to specialist music magazines including penning a monthly column for Suonare News and has written articles and opinion pieces for The Strad, BBC and Classical Music Magazines, Musical Opinion, and Strings Magazine. Francesca has also recently 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 is based in London and plays a rare Francesco Ruggeri violin (Cremona 1697).

Artist website: www.francescadego.com

Promoters please note: We update our biographies regularly and ask that they are not altered without permission. For updated versions, please e-mail: Ben Horden