NICOLÒ BIEMMI, BASSOON
GIULIA CONTALDO, PIANO
Thursday 19 May 2022, 1pm, Howden Minster
Free admission with retiring donations
Booking recommended
Bloch Prayer
Rossini Concerto for bassoon and orchestra
Tchaikovsky Nocturne, Op. 19 No. 4
Tchaikovsky August ('Harvest')
Debussy La soirée dans Grenade
Ravel Piece en forme de Habanera
Sollima Spasimo fragments
Einaudi Due tramonti
Nicolò Biemmi started playing the bassoon at the age of 10, graduating at the age of 19 from Conservatorio Luca Marenzio di Brescia. He completed his Masters at the Royal Northern College of Music with distinction, studying with Stefano Canuti and Roberto Giaccaglia. Nicolò is currently an academist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also been selected for the prestigious International Artist Diploma course at the RNCM whilst also pursuing a Masters degree in Saarbrücken with Guilhaume Santana.
As a soloist, Nicolò has performed with the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, the Manchester Beethoven Orchestra and Orchestra Antonio Vivaldi. In July 2022 he will be performing a solo concerto with the BBC Philharmonic.
Nicolò has been awarded prizes in many solo bassoon competitions, including first prize at the cross-college concerto competition at RNCM, first prize at the Concorso Scuole in Musica di Verona and second prize at the prestigious Premio Nazionale delle Arti, reserved for the best Italian conservatorire students nationwide. He also was a finalist in the Sir Karl Jenkins Competition.
Nicolò has played with great conductors and soloists such as Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi, Aldo Ceccato, Pekka Kuusisto, Giovanni Sollima and Aram Khacheh. He has played in orchestras in Europe and Asia including Munich Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, Milan Philharmonic Orchestra, Bazzini Consort, Michael Haydn Orchestra, and Orchestra Regionale dei Conservatori della Lombardia e del Canton Ticino.
www.instagram.com/nicolobiemmi
Watch Nicolò and Giulia perform Sonata for bassoon and piano – Saint-Saëns
Italian/American pianist Giulia Contaldo was one of the 62 pianists chosen to participate in the first round of the Leeds International Piano Competition in April 2021. In 2021 she performed Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto with the Manchester Camerata and RNCM Symphony Orchestra. In February 2022 she will perform the Schumann Piano Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic at Bridgewater Hall.
Giulia recently won both the Concerto Competition and the Piano Duo Prize of the Royal Northern College of Music and was awarded the RNCM's Gold Medal. For 2021/2022 Giulia has been accepted on the highly selective International Artist Diploma Course of the RNCM.
Giulia completed her degree studies under Giovanna Prestia at Florence's 'Luigi Cherubini' Conservatory. From 2012, Giulia studied at Imola International Piano Academy with Jin Ju, where she completed her final artist diploma in 2019. That same year she won a scholarship for the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music with Graham Scott and Dina Parakhina, thanks to the generous support of the Helen Mackaness Award. She graduated with distinction.
Giulia has performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 with both Orchestra del Carmine and Giovane Orchestra d’Abruzzo. She was a soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Florence Conservatory Orchestra, with whom she also performed the Schumann Piano Concerto in 2017 at the Teatro Verdi of Florence.
With violinist Sara Pastine, Giulia won the first prize in the International Chamber Music Competition 'Massimiliano Antonelli' (Latina), the 'A. Burri' Chamber Music Competition organized by Festival delle Nazioni, and most recently the duo was awarded a prize at the 32nd Concours Européen de Musique de Chambre organized by FNAPEC (Paris), the 'Giovanni Guglielmo' Competition in Padova, Onstage International Competition.