Andrea Scacchi - biography
Andrea Scacchi began his cello studies with Paolo Beschi and graduated with honors from the Como Conservatory under the guidance of Guido Boselli. He pursued advanced studies with Mario Brunello, Enrico Dindo, Johannes Goritzki, Siegfried Palm, and the Trio di Trieste, the latter awarding him the Diploma of Merit from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in 2000. In 2006, he won the Premio Nazionale delle Arti (National Arts Prize), awarded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, as the best string instrumentalist across all Italian Conservatories. Demonstrating great versatility from the very beginning, his chamber music career spans from the Baroque repertoire (with the ensemble Il Ruggiero – New York, 1999) to contemporary music (with the Nuove Sincronie ensemble, a CD recording with the Arriaga Quartet, and the Milano Cello Quartet). He has been invited to perform in numerous prestigious concert series, including the Stresa Festival (in an 8-cello ensemble with Enrico Dindo), I Suoni delle Dolomiti (with the Cello4Ever cello quartet featuring Mario Brunello and trumpeter Dave Douglas), the LacMus Festival (alongside soprano Christiane Karg and pianist Louis Lortie), and the Filarmonica della Scala (performing Tan Dun's Four Secret Roads of Marco Polo for 12 cellos). As a soloist, he gave the world premiere of Giacomo Manzoni's Freedom – tribute to Jimi Hendrix for cello and recorded sounds. He has also performed Schumann's Cello Concerto with the Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta and Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Orchestra 1813, additionally appearing at the MITO Festival with a solo cello program. He has served as Principal Cello with the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Verdi di Milano — with whom he performed Krzysztof Penderecki's Triple Concerto conducted by the composer himself — and with I Solisti di Pavia. He has been regularly invited as Co-Principal Cello (Secondo Violoncello) at the Teatro alla Scala, and for 30 years he has collaborated with top-tier orchestras, including the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the Filarmonica della Scala, and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie.He was a finalist in auditions for the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, and the Opernhaus Zürich. His discography includes recordings for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicom, Edizioni Sincronie, EMI, and Sony. Deeply committed to education for the past 20 years, he is currently Professor of Cello at the "G. Cantelli" Conservatory in Novara.