Press Releases

For some time, Gorini has been seeking a more meaningful and fulfilling way to share his music-making with audiences and communities. Over the course of a year (2025-26) he will spend a month in each of seven far-flung cities around the world as well as his home country. Each residency will have at its core a significant recital and concerto performance with the city’s symphony orchestra at the beginning and end of the period, while the rest of his time will be devoted to creative local partnerships with free educational, mentoring and philanthropic activity as well as performances in more unusual venues beyond the city centre for audiences who are not regular concert-goers for a variety of reasons.

Gorini says of this deliberate slowing down: “The idea is simple: instead of constantly travelling from one concert venue to another, I want to focus on each city for a full month and offer as much as I can to the local community in that time, with the aim of leaving a deeper impression than would be possible with a single performance. I hope to build ongoing relationships and create a new way of developing my career for the long term future in this way with many more cities around the world.”

Discussions are already well underway on the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America, with confirmed commitments so far in Milan, Vancouver and Vienna. Gorini will also premiere a specially commissioned piano sonata in each city: Federico Gardella, Stefano Gervasoni, Oscar Jockel and Michelle Agnes Magalhaes have pledged their support so far.

Ilaria Borletti Buitoni remarks: “I very much admire Filippo’s very generous commitment to sharing his great musical talent and insight with a much wider community, especially those who are often unable to attend major concerts through lack of such things as money, confidence, education and ability. This is very much in keeping with our BBT Communities initiative launched in 2019 to support charities around the world that help underprivileged people of all ages and backgrounds through music. I wish Filippo every success with this philanthropic initiative, which I am sure, will be a very rewarding experience for him and for everybody involved. ”

The Franco Buitoni Award was conceived by BBT founder Ilaria Borletti Buitoni as a tribute to her late husband Franco Buitoni (1934-2016), co-founder of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. The Award of £25,000 is given every other year (announced on Franco’s birthday, 17 March) and recognises Italian musicians who promote and encourage chamber music at home and throughout the world.

Latest updates and details on Sonata for 7 Cities: www.sonatafor7cities.com

The special Franco Buitoni Award Concert will be held on 22 July at Villa Necchi Campiglio, an elegant, architecturally important 1930s villa set in beautiful grounds in the heart of Milan.
casemuseo.it/project/necchi-campiglio/

FILIPPO GORINI website www.filippogorini.it

• Born 1995 into a family of nuclear physicists.
• Awards and prizes include Franco Buitoni Award 2023, Premio Abiati ‘Best Soloist of the Year’ 2022, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2020, Telekom-Beethoven Competition (First and Audience prizes) 2015, Neuhaus Competition Moscow 2013 (First prize)“Una Vita per la Musica – Giovani” of La Fenice Theatre, Young Euro Classic Award and Beethoven-Ring of Bonn.
• Concert appearances include Wigmore Hall London, Tonhalle Zurich, Vienna Konzerthaus, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Berlin Konzerthaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Munich Herkulessaal, Società del Quartetto di Milano, San Carlo Theatre Naples, Meany Hall Seattle, Vancouver Playhouse, Samsung Concert Hall Seoul and Aichi Arts Theatre Nagoya.
• Orchestras he has guested with include Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Flanders Symphony Orchestra and Verdi Orchestra in Milan, among others
• Festival appearances include Marlboro Music, Al Bustan Festival Lebanon, Cliburn Beethoven Festival, Naples Associazione Scarlatti, Accademia Filharmonica Romana, Ravello Festival, Ravenna Festival and Festival Bach Montreal.
• Chamber music collaborators include Steven Isserlis/Prussia Cove and Chamber Music Connects the World in Kronberg.
• Recordings: debut album of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations released in 2017 on Alpha Classics was critically acclaimed with 5-star reviews in media including The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, Le Monde and more, plus Diapason d’Or Award. Alpha released his second disc, Beethoven’s Op. 106 & Op. 111 in early 2020 in 2020, followed by Bach’s The Art of Fugue in 2021 – both equally well received and the latter nominated by Le Monde as one of the best albums of the year
• Contemporary music also features prominently in his repertoire including performances of works by Stockhausen, Kurtág, Lachenmann, Gervasoni and Lanza in the past season alone. His main passions are the works of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.
• Special Projects include his ongoing multi-disciplinary project Bach: The Art of Fugue Explored (Phase 2 to be launched 2023/24 season) and Sonata for 7 Cities (launched in 2025).
• Studies with Maria Grazia Bellocchio and Pavel Gililov and is mentored by Alfred Brendel and Mitsuko Uchida.
• Graduated from scientific high school with a thesis on Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems, then with honours in piano studies from the Donizetti Conservatory in Bergamo, followed by postgraduate course at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

The Critics – Filippo Gorini on Alpha Classics

Bach The Art of Fugue

wonderfully luminous …  beautifully regulated by a meeting of fingers with brain comparable to (for example) Zimerman’s Chopin.

Peter Quantrill, Gramophone

He excels in contrasts: Contrapunctus VI is all poise and elegance, the fugue that follows it a study in quiet introspection… There’s a palpable sense of discovery. Gorini gives each fugue personality. His Fuga a 3 soggetti is terrific, played unfinished as Bach left it, the sudden finish as surprising as ever. We’re left wanting to find out more.

Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk

Beethoven Diabelli Variations

Beethoven’s massive and confounding Diabelli Variations isn’t the obvious choice for a debut disc, but the young Italian pianist Filippo Gorini … has a fearless attack in heftier variations and an inquisitive, ultra-focused touch as the themes start to splinter and turn inward … It is brave, original playing for a musician of any age.

Kate Molleson, The Guardian