PAGE CONTENT: 
 1  BIOGRAPHY
 2  SELF MADE VIDEOS
 3  DISCOGRAPHY
 4  REVIEWS
 5  PROFESSIONAL RESUME

 1- BIOGRAPHY 

Last update: February 2023

 3- DISCOGRAPHY 

CHAN 20134 ℗ © 2020 Chandos Records Ltd

Chosen by Classical Music-BBC Music Magazine as one of the best classical album released in 2020

Vivacity and happiness, indignation and peremptoriness...
Working from the concept that opposition is needed to truly experience beauty, Federico Colli has created these double sonatas, by pairing works with contrasting tempi, dynamics, character and feeling.

© Radio WDR3 Tonart
"Federico Colli explores the facets of the modern grand piano, but also retains the silvery sound of a harpsichord."
by Christoph Vratz ★★★★★

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The Sunday Times - UK ★★★★★
"Federico Colli illuminates each work’s uniqueness and his beautiful sound consistently beguiles the ear."

The Times - UK ★★★★
"Touch, articulation, tone, phrasing; every element worked in step to create agile music-making alive with subtle emotions and conscious thought."
FULL REVIEW 

BBC Music Magazine - UK ★★★★★
Recording of the month
 "The real point of this recording is its wonderful pianism."
FULL REVIEW

International Piano - UK
Album of the month
"This is a superb release from the most scintillating and personal of all young artists."
FULL REVIEW

CHAN 20079 ℗ © 2019 Chandos Records Ltd

"For the purpose of creating this CD, I wanted to concentrate all my energy and to point your attention towards a great and unique concept: the relationship with transcendence."

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"Playing on a modern Steinway, the Italian pianist invests Bach’s keyboard works with vitality and a memorable soft-edged inwardness. Colli’s performance is characteristically thoughtful and considered, yet has a self-aware sense of the epic. It’s a monumentally well-paced performance that grips from each moment to the next."
Erica Jeal, The Guardian - UK ★★★★★

"What shines through this new Bach disc is a sense of musical daring, and imagination too. He brings to the Ouverture of the Fourth Partita a compelling sense of grandeur, while the fast writing combines buoyancy with absolute clarity in the counterpoint, with myriad shifts of dynamics and phrasing. The Sarabande is a highlight on this new recording, full of iridescent beauty. And Colli’s revealing of the inner working of the Gigue is utterly compelling. There’s no doubt that Colli is one of the more original thinkers of his generation."
Harriet Smith, Gramophone - UK

"In reference to dynamics, Federico Colli acts in an even more sensitive way than other great performers, creating an inner drama which turns the piece into a work full of tension. He is intelligent, and able to draw from this music- often heard- new aspects that never act against the musical text. Colli is a brilliant and marvelous pianist!"
Carsten Dürer, PianoNEWS - Germany ★★★★★★

"His Bach recording, published by Chandos Records, is anything but mainstream. Through a wide dynamic range, nothing sounds like mechanic and each phrasing, even the simplest scale, contains an individual musical message. The figures and motifs are never stubbornly repeated, but always illuminated and seen from a different perspective. Everything is finely modeled and if you think you have heard an absolute Pianissimo, Federico Colli is even more quiet and delicate, without the sound losing substance. He plays in an irresistible way and while you are listening to him you have the feeling that music should be just like that and not in another way. This is the difference from all the interpretations which are only interesting."
Susanne Stähr, SWR2 (Südwestrundfunk) – Germany

"Whatever he plays, whatever he does, Colli compels attention. Take the way he steers the full power of his Steinway through accelerating crescendos and their reverse in the Bach-Busoni Chaconne. Listen to his fading retreat from the slow movement of the Italian Concerto. Better yet, there’s his Sarabande in the Partita, where he heightens Bach’s transfigured version of an old dance form by pausing at times for up to several seconds, putting listener and music on tenterhooks. Indeed, I’d place this D major Partita as the album’s real transcendent experience. It’s here that the clarity of Colli’s fingerwork brings the most benefit, along with his engineering skills. Every movement is carefully weighted to form part of a whole, from the grandiose flourishes opening the Overture to the three-minute sprint of the final Gigue. On this album, you get three dimensions, sometimes more."
Geoff Brown, The Times - UK ★★★★★ 

CHAN 10988 ℗ © 2018 Chandos Records Ltd

Presto Classical editorial team have decided to insert this album on Top 10 Recordings of 2018

"The urge to divide the contents of this CD into four chapters developed in me as my understanding of Domenico Scarlatti as a man and as an artist became clearer and deeper."

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"Cleverly structured according to mood, the present selection first impresses with the clarity of Colli’s touch as he speeds through Scarlatti’s hurtling rhythms, startling modulations and dissonant crunches. In K.208, an A major adagio, we seem to be listening to music unravelling and Colli’s delicacy at such points is miraculous. The result is 18th-century Scarlatti all set up for the 21st, racing ahead with intoxicating vivacity, shimmering with poetry and painted a thousand colours."
Geoff Brown, The Times - UK ★★★★★

"He groups his chosen “sonatas” in sequences of four and he makes his choices for contrast. Whatever the end goal, this is going to be an exhilarating journey in Colli’s crisp, articulate and expressive hands."
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times - UK

"Colli brings out the joy of the pieces, taking the listener through adventures. He outdoes both Horowitz (1960s; M/A 2004) and Pletnev (1995 not reviewed) in vigor and contrasts. Acquire this and prepare to buy more of it."
Bradley Lehman, American Record Guide - USA

"Colli's virtuosity copes easily with the sonatas' fiendish runs, snaps, and awkward trills, capturing the Spanish, Italian folk and dances influences that give these short, often curious pieces such flavour, wit and vitality."
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer - UK

"In the F minor Sonata Kk69, the results are wonderful, expressive and yet dignified. His beautifully light touch and lyrical grace make the music shine."
Ivan Hewett, The Daily Telegraph - UK ★★★★

"I must confess that this CD is one of the most exciting and enjoyable things I've heard in a long time. Federico Colli avoids the historical correctness looking for a new approach, but he does it with an unmistakable taste, a sense of form, a lot of imagination and an extraordinarily unconventional freshness. After this listening, we are like the legendary London concert-goers, who were shouting loudly at the end of an evening with Furtwängler: "It's all wrong!". And at the same time they were clapping enthusiastically."
Ingo Harden, Fono Forum - Germany ★★★★★

"This is amazing music, so imaginative, so emotionally varied. One can just listen straight through, sixty-seven minutes well-spent, and enjoy Scarlatti’s rich, wide-ranging and surprising invention. Fast works are crisp and brilliant, slower ones sensitive and affecting. Colli really makes this music speak and resonate, and throughout he digs deep into the musical potential created by this genius composer."
Colin Anderson, Classical Source - UK ★★★★★

"What we get here is music making of rare conviction and exuberance, a vitality that sweeps you up in a tide of invention. Scarlatti hasn’t been this much fun since Horowitz left it off his encores list. Bookmark this project, a milestone in modern recording."
Norman Lebrecht, My Scena La Scena Musicale - Canada ★★★★

"The 16 sonatas are grouped into four chapters. It’s a brilliant idea, as intellectually satisfying as it is musically - especially given Colli’s ability to validate his musical argument with such persuasive, tasteful use of tempi, dynamics, articulation and phrasing."
Will Yeoman, Limelight - Australia ★★★★

"You can't but marvel at the sheer quality of his playing - his trills the epitome of crispness, his repeated notes sounding absurdly easy, while his command of dynamic extremes is second to none."
Harriet Smith, Gramophone - UK

"The pianist is brilliantly alive to Scarlatti's infinite variety, mixing the familiar with the unfamiliar. His is an enthralling journey with a determination to open our minds and ears to all Scarlatti has to offer. Colli's pinpoint brilliance is complemented by an inwardness that makes his curtain-raiser, KK19 in F minor, a particularly haunting experience."
Bryce Morrison, International Piano - UK ★★★★★

"Colli's colouring of the music is imaginative, and he is often persuasive in his cantabile playing. Notwithstanding some splendid moments - the A major Sonata K39 is one of them - I am happier when the aesthetics of Scarlatti's time are more closely adhered to."
Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine - UK ★★★

"Colli performs these sonatas following the inner expression of the sounds. In this way, new sound worlds emerge with an immense range of nuances and touches. He is a meticulous and persuasive interpreter, so his Scarlatti's interpretations are so worthy of being heard."
Carsten Dürer, PianoNEWS - Germany ★★★★★★ 

CHRCD079 © ℗ 2014 Champs Hill Records

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"Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata is full of youthful fire in this performance by the Leeds winner Federico Colli. In short, it comprises the storm, the calm and the fury: I can almost imagine this is how Beethoven would have played it. Federico Colli shows his beautiful shades of colour in the wildly demanding Scriabin Tenth Sonata, where the trills and abrupt rhythms are given their full worth by the performer. With Mussorgsky’s Pictures, it can often be the case that pianists tend to overdo the drama. Federico Colli, however, is not out to score cheap points. The ‘Promenade’ binds the sections together without coming across as repetitive, and the big chords on the final pages are never harsh or banging. This is an impressive recording - the whole release is proof that the Leeds judges made the right decision in selecting Federico Colli as their number one."
Pianist Magazine - UK ★★★★★

"Federico Colli's captivating ability to illuminate even the most densely packed musical terrain emerges as a structure of supreme logic."
Julian Haylock, BBC Music Magazine - UK

"Entirely individual, Federico Colli nonetheless takes you back to the far-off days of Lupu and Perahia. I can celebrate a crystalline brilliance and translucence that takes you to the heart of everything he plays."
Bryce Morrison, Gramophone - UK

"From the first moments of the Appassionata Sonata, one realizes that a substantial pianistic talent is on display. Scriabin’s almost atonal 10th Sonata receives a very sensitive and insightful reading and in Pictures he brings off in impressive fashion. This is a well-recorded recital by an impressive young artist and you should give this disc a listen just to become acquainted with what a worthy member of the younger generation of pianists has to say about these seminal masterpieces of Western music."
David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare Magazine - USA 

UNIMOZ 53 © 2014

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
[1] Variations in F Major KV 398 on “Salve tu, Domine”
[2] Rondo in D Major KV 485
[3] Eine kleine Gigue in G Major KV 574
[4] - [6] Sonata in G Major KV 283
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
[7] - [10] Sonata no. 1 in F minor Op. 2 Nr. 1
Recorded on December 13th and 14th, 2011 at the Solitar of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg
MAURICE RAVEL
[11] - [13] Gaspard de la nuit
Recorded live on June 1st, 2013 at the Dortmund Amphi Saal for the Klavier Festival Ruhr

© 2011 Klassische Philharmonie Bonn

 4- REVIEWS 

If anyone had arrived at the concert wondering why Federico Colli had won the Salzburg Mozart Competition and the Gold Medal at The Leeds, their wondering would have turned to just plain wonder after only a few bars of hearing him play.

William Ruff, Nottingham Post

Federico Colli- piano playing of wonderful subtlety.
The slow movement- one of the most beautiful things in Schumann's output, surely- was moody, rapt and gloriously poetic.

Tim Ashley, The Guardian  ★★★★★

Something magical began to happen with the first variation of the Beethoven's second movement: a pattern of figuration that in other hands can be nothing more than that, but that for Federico Colli became a shifting lattice of subtle voices, light and shade- as if he could hear and imagine things that the rest of us can't.

Jessica Duchen, JDCMB

Federico Colli is undoubtedly an interpreter of extraordinary freshness, elegance and originality. The expressive tension, the tonal variety and the richness of accents in the phrasing are irresistible to the listener's ears.

Gianni Villani, L'Arena di Verona

Federico Colli has obviously a wonderful technique, which allows him to penetrate the work in different ways. His interpretation of Beethoven’s Emperor was clearly structured and logically expressed.

Harald Budweg, Frankfurter Allgemeine

Cutting a dandyish figure in his grey suit and trademark silk cravat, Federico Colli launched the Mozart Sonata regarded by many pianists as downright trivial, but which in his hands opened up like a spring flower, its outer movements shot through with brilliant lights, and its Andante exquisitely shaded; he tended to brush the keys rather than striking them, and he was very sparing with the pedal.

Michael Church, The Independent   ★★★★★

With clear and shrill sound, Federico Colli not only conquers the goal- showing a technique of extreme virtuosity- but also manages to give a his own reading of the demoniac Rach 3. He reveals the nature "liberty", decorative and insinuating of the concerto, more American than Russian, more silky than furry. Very well.

Carla Moreni, Il Sole 24 Ore

With Federico Colli, winner in 2012 of the renowned Leeds Piano Competition, Italy has gained, after a long time, a young pianist who has every chance of reconnecting with the great tradition of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Maurizio Pollini. His sense for the strong contrasts, for a brilliant and resolute sound aims to the passion. His dizzying coherence in the interpretation and his focus on the changing lights are not exhausted in a virtuosic performance, but they serve to the structural explanation of the work.

Werner Haussner, Dortmund Revier Passagen

Played with formidable delicacy by Federico Colli with limpid tone and calligraphic phrasing, it’s a Valentino kiss this work. Cool, a little sad, unhurried, elegant. But Federico Colli takes care to seduce before sweeping the listener off his or her feet.

Anna Picard, The Times

Federico Colli is a prodigious young talent, making effortless work of Beethoven’s masterful but technically demanding ‘Emperor’ piano concerto. Visually, the cravat is the most flamboyant thing about him- his playing style is composed, with all his internal energy being channelled through long, elegant fingers and into a fluidly graceful, but technically impeccable, performance. The flourish of the opening movement was impressive, but the central Allegro was a thing of beauty.

Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo

His playing was consistently detached, but never mechanical and he was phenomenal with his clarity of playing.

Michael Tumelty, The Herald

 5- PROFESSIONAL 
 RESUME 

Last update: February 2023

Piano Competitions:
- Winner of the Salzburg Mozart Competition in 2011
- Winner of the Gold Medal at The Leeds International Piano Competition in 2012
Course of studies and teachers:
Born in Brescia in 1988, he has been studying at the Milan Conservatory, Imola International Piano Academy and Salzburg Mozarteum, under the guidance of Sergio Marengoni, Konstantin Bogino, Boris Petrushansky and Pavel Gililov
Orchestras:
Mariinsky and St Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and RTÉ National Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, Vienna Chamber, Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Hamburger Symphoniker and Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Aalborg Symfoniorkester, Polish National Radio Symphony, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, George Enescu Philharmonic, National Symphony of Uzbekistan, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Armenian State Symphony and Estonian National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestra Arena di Verona, Accademia Nazionale S. Cecilia, Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi and Nazionale della RAI, Stamford Symphony, Filarmonica de la UNAM and Sinfônica Brasileira
Conductors:
Alan Buribayev, Damian Iorio, Vladimir Kulenovic, John Neschling, Clemens Schuldt, Valery Gergiev, Heribert Beissel, Juraj Valčuha, Thomas Søndergård, Ed Spanjaard, Roman Kofman, Yuri Temirkanov, Neil Thomson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marios Papadopoulos, Sascha Goetzel, Case Scaglione, Kees Bakels, Ion Marin, Timothy Brock, Claus Peter Flor, Yuki Miyagi, Fabio Luisi, Vasily Petrenko, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Alejo Pérez and Sakari Oramo
Theaters:
Cidade Das Artes and Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Nikkei Hall, Musashino Cultural Hall and Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, Kumho Art Hall in Seoul and Culture and Arts Center in Pohang, Sala Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico City, Lincoln Centre in New York, Bennet Gordon Hall in Chicago and Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Playhouse in Vancouver, Musikverein, Ehrbar Saal and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Berlin Konzerthaus, Munich Herkulessaal, Hamburg Laeiszhalle and Elbphilharmonie, Bonn Beethovenhalle, Hannover NDR Landesfunkhaus and Leipzig Gewandhaus, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Barbican Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and Leeds Town Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Edinburgh Usher Hall, Dublin National Concert Hall, Prague Rudolfinum Dvorak Hall, Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and Verdi in Florence, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Manzoni in Bologna and RAI Toscanini in Turin, Auditorium Cariplo, Teatro degli Arcimboldi and Dal Verme in Milan, Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo, Salle Cortot and Philharmonie in Paris, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Mariinsky Theatre and Philharmonia in St Petersburg, Teatro Sociedad Filarmonica in Bilbao, Konserthuset in Stockholm, Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn, Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan and Kiev Lysenko Hall
Festivals:
Robeco Summer Nights in Amsterdam, London Symphony Orchestra Season, International Piano Series and Southbank Centre Classical Season in London, Klavier Festival Ruhr in Dortmund, Mozartfest Würzburg, Winderstein Konzerte Klassik vor acht in Munich and Bechstein Klavierabende in Berlin, Dvorakova International Festival in Prague, Steinway International Piano Series in Cardiff, Leeds International Piano Series, Fondazione La Società dei Concerti in Milan, Musica Insieme in Bologna, International Festival MiTo in Turin and Brescia Bergamo International Piano Festival, Chopin and his Europe International Festival in Warsaw, Rubinstein Piano Festival in Lodz and Chopin International Piano Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, Czech Chamber Music Society, Lucerne Festival, Festival Groba in Spain, Malta International Music Festival, White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, Armenia International Music Festival, Pohang Chamber Music Festival, Medalha de Ouro Piano Festival in Rio de Janeiro, The Vancouver Chopin Society, International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York, Steinway Society Season in San Jose, The Gilmore in Kalamazoo and Ravinia Festival in Chicago
He has been sharing the stage with:
Lang Lang, Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire, Pablo Ferrández, Pinchas Zukerman, Amanda Forsyth, Leonidas Kavakos, Nuovo Trio Italiano d’Archi and La Scala String Quartet
Cover star on the magazines:
Suonare News, Pianist, International Piano and Harmonie
Some of his concerts have been broadcast by:
Deutschlandfunk and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), BBC Radio 3, RAI Radio 3, RAI Play and RAI 5 TV, Radio Classique, Polish Radio 2, Czech Radio and RTÉ Lyric FM
Jury Member:
63rd Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition- Final stage 2021
Awards:
- The "Grosso d'argento" as a prize for the international prestige given to his hometown
- The Music Section of the UK Critics’ Circle included him among the recipients of its 2018 Awards