ITAENG
GIORGIO TABACCO
Harpsichordist and fortepianist, after obtaining his piano diploma at Genoa's Conservatory
he has focused entirely on harpsichord and early music, attending Achille Berruti's courses at
Piacenza's Conservatory and achieving the program's diploma. Subsequently he attended a number
of courses in Italy and abroad, under the guidance of Bob van Asperen and Kenneth Gilbert, who
awarded him a diploma of merit at Siena's Chigiana Academy. Later on, he was admitted at the
advanced courses of Christiane Jaccottet's class at Geneva's Conservatory, achieving the Prix de
Virtuosité. He has stepped on stage for numerous concert performances both as soloist
and as a part of chamber music ensembles, amongst which L'Astrée - founded by him in 1991 - stands out.
He has performed in Italy and abroad as soloist and with L'Astrée, invited by important associations
and festivals such as: Turin's Unione Musicale, Settembre Musica, Piccolo Regio and Auditorium del
Lingotto; Rome's Oratorio del Gonfalone and Galleria Doria Pamphyli; Milan's Musica e Poesia a
San Maurizio; Bologna's Associazione Clavicembalistica; Como's Autunno Musicale; Urbino's Early
Music Festival; Perugia's Amici della Musica; Madrid's Auditorium Nacional de Musica; Strasburg's
Early Music Festival; Versailles's Early Music Festival; Hagen's Festival; Edinburgh's Saint
Cecilia Hall; Lousanne's Salle Paderewski and Orchestre de Chambre; Geneva's Conservatory;
Boston's Early Music Society; New York's University and Frick Collection; Buenos Aires's Teatro
Coliseo; Potsdam-Sans Soucis's Festival; and Innsbruck's Festwochen.
His keen interest in the rediscovery of Seventeenth and Eighteenth century Piedmontese authors
has led him to carry out a series of important projects - both concerts and recordings - dedicated
to authors who established themselves at Turin's royal court, and whose music is reposited in
Piedmont. Amongst these projects, one deserves a special mention: with L'Astrée he has recorded
three CDs with a wide range of music by Turin-born composer and violinist Gaetano Pugnani.
Within the international project Vivaldi Edition, which has the goal of recording all of
Vivaldi's manuscripts kept in Turin's National Library, he has recorded tracks dedicated to
Antonio Vivaldi's concerts and chamber cantatas with the French house Naive-Opus 111, in
cooperation with soloists such as Gemma Bertagnolli and Laura Polverelli. With Opus 111 ha
has also recorded a few quartets for harpsichord and strings by the Piedmontese composer
Felice Giardini, as well as some quintets by the Neapolitan composer Tommaso Giordani. A
few years ago he also began an intense cooperation with the magazine Amadeus, for which he
has recorded, with violinist Francesco D'Orazio, Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord,
Haendel's sonatas for violin and basso continuo and some of Haydn's trios for violin,
fortepiano and cello. During 2009 he will record, again for Amadeus, Bach's concerts for
two harpsichords and strings in cooperation with harpsichordist Mariangiola Martello, with
whom he has an artistic partnership focused on performing a rich repertoire for harpsichord
duos and harpsichord and fortepiano duos. He owns a copy of a Taskin harpsichord of the
second half of the Eighteenth century and a copy of a Ruckers harpsichord from the end of
the Seventeenth century, both made by Michael Johnson, and he has recently bought a copy
of an Anton Walter fortepiano (Wien,1805) made by Paul Mc Nulty.
Since 1994 he has been artistic director of Academia Montis Regalis, one of the most
internationally renown baroque and classical orchestras with original instruments, and
of Festival Armoniche Fantasie, a concert festival dedicated to early music, held yearly
in Piedmont.
He is harpsichord professor at Turin's "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory.
