Martina Biondi & Pietro Locatto
Biography Martina Biondi & Pietro Locatto
Martina Biondi
is an Italian cellist born in 1994.
At the age of 17 she made her debut with Orchestra under the bottom of Donato Sivo with the Schumann ́s concerto. Since then she has been regularly invited as a soloist or chamber musician to important musical scenarios such as: Ravello Festival, Alfredo Piatti International Festival, "M.Quintieri" Music Association, ICAMS Music Association, Mendelssohn Remise of Berlin, Berlin Philarmonie, Orania Classical Berlin, Aurora Chamber Festival, Appassionata musical Association, Cantiere Musicale of Montepulciano Festival, Società dei Concerti in Milan, Accademia dei Cameristi di Bari, Orchestra Pomeriggi Musicali with which she made her debut with Beethoven's triple concerto under the bottom of Pavel Berman.
Currently she continues her concert activity in duo with the pianist Luca Buratto and the guitarist Pietro Locatto with whom she recorded a Cd called "Evocaciones" that will be released within this year.
In 2019 she is a prize winner of the Pirazzi Stiftung Prize in Frankfurt. Among the prizes we also mention 2 Prize Francesco Geminiani Competition, 1 Prize "Premio Crescendo" including the Prize for best performance of the Cassadó Cello Suite, semifinalist of the Antonio Janigro competition..
Born into a family of musicians, Martina receives her first cello lesson at the age of four. She continued her studies at the Conservatory of Cosenza “Stanislao Giacomantonio” where she graduated at the age of 17 with full marks. In 2014 she graduated at the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome with Giovanni Sollima. She then continued her studies with Antonio Meneses at the Stauffer Academy and with Peter Bruns at the Hochschule für Musik "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig. In 2016 she moved to Berlin where she studied Master at the prestigious Hochschule for Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin with Nicolas Altstaedt.
Her training has been enriched thanks to the Masterclasses held by Jens Peter Maintz, Antonio Meneses, Gary Hoffman at the famous Kronberg Academy, Frans Helmerson, Torleif Thedéen..
Martina was recently invited to play for French/German television Arte tv by the famous violinist Daniel Hope in his show Hope@home for young generation.
Martina plays an Antonio Guadagnini 1881.
Pietro Locatto
received his music education under the guidance of Stefano Grondona and perfected his skills with Frédéric Zigante, Oscar Ghiglia and Lorenzo Micheli, receiving scholarships and special awards, including five Diploma di Merito from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.
During his studies he was a scholar at the Associazione "De Sono" and he stood out by winning several international competitions in different countries, of which we would like tomention the first prize at the "Gianni Bergamo Music Award" in Lugano(in the only edition dedicated to the guitar).
Golden guitar as "youngpromise" at the Convegno Internazionale di Chitarra di Milano, he performed the Concierto de Aranjuez with the Orchestra Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma. Invited by the pianist Michele Campanella to perform as the only guitarist at Festival Spinacorona he held solo recitals in international festivals in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, England, Croatia, Belgium and he was recently selected from the Adelaide International Guitar Festivalfor a tour of concerts in Australia.
His profound interest for Spanish music for guitar from the first half of the '900 brought to a first monographic album based on the work from Federico Moreno Torroba (Stradivarius) and a second album focused on the characters of Llobet, Asencio and Mompou, greatly received by the critics both in Italy and internationally (Rai Radio 3,American Record Guide, Discover Classical, Gendai Guitar, Guitar Classique,Musica, Amadeus…).
His research on Iberian music was expanded thanks to the partnership with the cellist Martina Biondi, with whom he started Duo Evocaciones and a program on the music of Cassadó, Albéniz,Granados and De Falla. Concurrently, invited by the magazine Seicorde, he created an album dedicated to bachian transcriptions from harpsichord, lute, and cello, published for the series "I Maestri della chitarra".
In 2019 he was the only guitarist to win a collaboration with the Teatro Regio of Turin. He has been interested in teaching for many years and he is currently working as a teacher at the Conservatorio di Bergamo, as a visiting professor at the LPMAM of London, besides being invited to hold masterclasses in several Italian festivals and other occasions.
Pietro Locatto plays an instrument built by Luigi Locatto, his father and luthier, inspired by the Enrique Garciafrom 1904 played by Francisco Tarrega in his last concert.
