Vittorio Ceccanti

Ceccanti graduated with honors at the end of his studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Stuttgart under the guidance of Natalia Gutman. He also attended master classes of Yo Yo Ma, Anner Bijlsma, Valentjn Berlinsky, the Trio di Trieste, the Trio di Milano, and has studied conducting with Piero Bellugi in Italy and Martyn Brabbins in Scotland.

Winner of several international prizes, Ceccanti made his debut as a soloist at age 17, performing the Lalo Cello Concerto with the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra (ORF) conducted by Pinchas Steinberg at the Musikverein Saal in Vienna and the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, which was televised by RAI-TV. Since then, he has been regularly invited to perform as a solo artist in Europe, South America and Asia.

Vittorio Ceccanti is the president and solo cellist of the ContempoArtEnsemble, and as well the founder of the ContempoPratoFestival both of which promote contemporary music. Some of the most renowned composers have worked with these ensembles.

Ceccanti has premiered pieces dedicated to him by Peter Maxwell Davies, Luciano Berio, Fabio Vacchi, Ivan Fedele, Luis De Pablo, Nicola Campogrande, Michele Dall’Ongaro, Carlo Boccadoro, Nicola Sani, Giorgio Colombo Taccani and Luca Mosca.

In 2003, Mr. Ceccanti made his debut as a conductor at the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro gaining great critical and public success. The next year he founded “I Virtuosi della Badia”, a chamber orchestra in Florence of which he is the music director and principal conductor. The concert season 2005-2006 received the silver medal from the Italian Republic President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. He has also conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and I Solisti Aquilani.

Recently Vittorio Ceccanti performed again at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome, at the Auditorium in Milano, at the Radio in Lugano.

He made his debut in England at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, in France for Les Flanneries Musicales de Reims and for Les Floraison Musical, and in Amsterdam at the Concertgebouw. In Italy, he has toured as soloist in the Dvorak Cello Concerto, the Schumann Cello Concerto and the Beethoven Triple Concerto.

At the “Festival Settembre Musica di Torino 2006” he made his debut with the RAI-National Symphony Orchestra playing the Maxwell Davies Cello Concerto conducted by the composer and he was soloist for Levante by Ivan Fedele for the Festival del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 2007.

For three consecutive years Ceccanti has toured in Korea where he has performed the Triple Concerto, the Cello Sonatas and Piano Trios of Beethoven.

He has recorded 8 CDs (ARTS, BMG-RICORDI and STRADIVARIUS) including repertoire of Maxwell Davies, Berio, Maderna, Boulez, Sciarrino, Steve Reich, Schoenberg and Vacchi.

In 2006 he has recorded Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano for EMI CLASSICS with the pianist Chong Park, Mendelssohn’s complete works for cello and piano with Bruno Canino and Chopin’s complete works for cello and piano and the Trio op.8 for BRILLIANT CLASSICS as part of the CHOPIN EDITION.

Vittorio Ceccanti is professor at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and he hold the master classes as part of the Gubbio Summer Festival. He plays a cello built in Venice in 1720 by Carlo Tononi, which once belonged to Amedeo Baldovino.

“Vittorio Ceccanti’s playing combines poetry and temperament at the same time. His rare qualities make him one of the great talent cellist of today's music world” – Natalia Gutman

“From the first time I met Vittorio Ceccanti I was impressed by his maturity and his intelligence. He is a very exceptional musician, both technically and intellectually. He is gifted with remarkable instrumental skill and deep musical insight” - Luciano Berio.