Simone Rubino - Biography

After winning the ARD competition in 2014 and receiving the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2016, Simone Rubino has never stopped attracting enthusiastic audiences both as a soloist (with the likes of the Vienna Philharmonic and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks), under such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Manfred Honeck and Tan Dun, and in extraordinary collaborations, with the Labèque sisters and Beatrice Rana among others.

A regular guest at festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and La Folle Journée (both in France and Japan), Rubino has transported percussion from the periphery to the center of the classical, contemporary and even baroque scene.

The idea of building a bridge – between generations, styles, ideas – is central to Simone’s creative process. A quick look at his discography illustrates how Rubino’s process of juxtaposition (of old and new, of sacred and profane, of “popular” and “cultured”) lies at the basis of his diverse and audacious experiments: from Bach to Piazzolla and John Cage and collaborating with dancers and children’s choirs.

With his interest in generational clashes and synergies, the richness and challenges posed by the dialogue between the ancients and the moderns, between fathers and sons, between classic and contemporary, Rubino sets himself the challenge of bringing today’s generations together both live and in recordings.

He took part in BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations in June 202, both at Bold Tendencies, Peckham in Kate Whitley and Multi-Story Orchestra’s Young Creatives’ Verified and at Wigmore Hall, where his BBT-supported film Il Ritmo della Terra was screened.

To me the Borletti Buitoni Trust is synonymous with Passion, Understanding, Courage, Support, Gratitude and Family.

Ever since I met BBT and got the fantastic news of becoming one of the BBT Fellowship winners 2020, a wonderful relationship has opened up with the team, which is always ready to contribute with passion and love to help the artist and make dreams become true.

As an artist I feel it is my responsibility to express and communicate, through art, moral values in which I strongly believe. Without art and culture man would lose his identity and his function in the world.

And it is for this reason that I admire and am extremely grateful to the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for supporting young artists and making this become an important mission.

Photographs by Simon Weir