A leading figure in the reinterpretation of early music and historically informed performance, his repertoire covers three centuries and contains both masterworks and less familiar or even forgotten output. In 1989, after years working with ensembles playing on period instruments, he founded Europa Galante, one of the leading ensembles specialising in the performance of Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music, appearing at major festivals and concert halls around the world, including the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Konzerthaus in Vienna, as well as the Edinburgh and Enescu festivals.
Biondi has also enjoyed great success working with contemporary symphony and chamber orchestras, both conducting and leading from the violin. Recent and forthcoming appearances include concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, RAI National Symphony Orchestra of Turin, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bamberger Symphoniker and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
From 2005 to 2016, Biondi was artistic director responsible for Baroque repertoire of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. His experience in the art of opera and his love of the genre have led to invitations from leading opera houses, including the Zurich Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Grand Theatre de Geneve and Theater an der Wien.
The 2023/2024 season has brought productions of Idomeneo at the Opera Royal de Wallonie and La clemenza di Tito at the Theatres de la Ville in Luxembourg. From 2015 to 2018, he was music director of the orchestra of the Palau de las Artes Reina Sofia in Valencia, where the productions he prepared included operas by Donizetti, Rossini, Haydn and Verdi. Esteemed as a virtuoso violinist, he has given recitals at such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid and Cite de la Musique in Paris. In the 2023/2024 season, engagements have included the Wigmore Hall, Geneva and Seville, as well as a tour of Japan with Bach sonatas and partitas, and he has conducted such ensembles as the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Zurich Chamber Orchestra.
Biondi’s rich discography includes releases by Warner Classics, Virgin, Glossa and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, rewarded with prizes such as the Diapason d’Or and Choc du Monde de la Musique; his recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Europa Galante won disc of the year in five countries. He has recorded with such artists as Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Philippe Jaroussky, Vivica Genaux and Rolando Villazon. His disc of Paganini sonatas for violin and guitar was Editor’s Choice of both Gramophone and BBC Music. He now records for Naive, which recently released discs with works by Mendelssohn (2022), quartets by Carlo Monza (2022) and Biondi’s first complete recording of the Bach sonatas and partitas (2021).
A separate chapter in Fabio Biondi’s artistic biography consists of his work with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute. He has appeared with Europa Galante several times at ‘Chopin and his Europe’, their performances including concert versions – the first performances in Poland on period instruments – of Bellini’s Norma and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Verdi’s Macbeth and Il corsaro, and also Moniuszko’s operas Halka, The Raftsman, The Countess, Verbum Nobile, The Pariah and The Haunted Manor, as well as his cantatas Phantoms and Nijoła. Il Corsaro, Un giorno di regno and the five Moniuszko operas have been released on CD by the Institute, to an enthusiastic reception from music lovers and international critics. Now in preparation is The Haunted Manor. Since 2011 he has taught at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
In 2015 he received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2019, in recognition of his services to promoting Polish culture throughout the world, the ‘Courage and Integrity’ Medal. He is artistic director of the Farnese Festival of early music in Parma, the first edition of which was held in 2023. This event, devoted to the seventeenthand eighteenth-century cultural legacy of Italy and Europe, attracts excellent ensembles specialising in performance on period instruments. He plays on a violin by Gennaro Gagliano, which belonged to his teacher, Salvatore Cicera, and has been loaned to him by the Salvatore Cicera Foundation of Parma – the city of his birth.
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