Marino Formenti
www.marinoformenti.com
Pianist and conductor, acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “a Glenn Gould of XXI century”, Marino Formenti has distinguished himself particularly like interpreter of the modern and contemporary music and for the deep dialogue between past and present, in the most recent programs such as "seven last words", "Kurtag's Ghosts" and "Liszt Inspections". His work often brings him to experience beyond the traditional concert-form, with concert-installations and performance (Piano Trips, Nothing is Real, The Party, Piano Integral).
He frequently appears in the most important international festivals and concert seasons all over the world as the New York Lincoln Center, the Festival of: Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Bregenz, Scheswig-Holstein, Festival of Aspen and Ravinia, Festival Lockenhaus (of Gidon Kremer), Berliner Festwochen, Berlin's Philharmonie and Konzerthaus,Musikverein and Konzerthaus of Wien, Filarmonie of Köln and Budapest, Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow and Phiarmonie of Saint Petersburg, Suntory Hall of Tokyo.
Formenti has been playing with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de Radio France and the most important orchestras of radio-television both in Germany and Austria. He has played under conductors like Franz Welser Möst, Kent Nagano, Esa Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel and Daniel Harding. He has also collaborates with some of the most important living composers, among them Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág and Salvatore Sciarrino.
In 2009 he has been Artist in Residence at the Kunstfest Weimar of Nike Wagner. On September 2010 he will perform the premiere of the project "Nowhere", a research on the public and private sides of music, living and playing perpetually for 8 days, in the same public place and in live streaming. For the National Dramaturgical Centre of Madrid he will make together with Rodrigo Garcia a project of musical theatre based on The seven last words of Christ by Joseph Haydn. In 2011 he will present the pianistic project "Kurtag's Ghosts" by him already performed in Lucern, Wien, New York, San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about this performance: "What Joyce made on the novel, Formenti seems to make on the concert. With unforgettable results." The new double CD "Kurtag's Ghosts" (KAIROS) has obtained great appreciation by European and American press. Again during 2011 he will present in Hamburg the new program Liszt Inspections and return to the Salzburg Festival with a recital dedicated to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Marino Formenti, as conductor, already assistant of Kent Nagano and Sylvain Cambreling, made his debut with Gidon Kremer and later on has performed many productions and concerts, at Teatro alla Scala, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Festival of Wien, Accademia di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Musikverein and Konzerthaus of Wien, Konzerthaus of Berlin, Festival Wien Modern, with Klangforum Wien, at the Ravenna Festival.
He has been invited by Maurizio Pollini for a project with him, has been conducting music by Luigi Nono in Milano, Roma, Paris. He has conceived and conducted THE PARTY at the Ravenna Festival, MEC Los Angeles, Curva Minore in Palermo. He has conducted the Austrian premiere of the opera "Der Protagonist" by Kurt Weill and in April 2010 at the Odeon of Wien the world premiere of the chamber version of "The Fiery Angel" by Prokofiev.
His recording has been published by KAIROS, Col Legno and BIS, obtaining enthusiastic reviews by the European and American press and many prizes.
During 2010 he is teaching at the Festival of Darmstadt and visiting professor at the Konservatorium of Wien. He is regularly invited to teach at masterclasses by institutions as the Manhattan School of Music and the Harvard University.
He is the winner of the BELMONT-Award 2009 of the Forberg-Schneider-Stiftung of Monaco.
