On Thursday, 14 December 2017, the director of the Lisbon Italian Cultural Institute, Luisa Violo, and the director of the National Museum of Music in Lisbon, Graça Mendes Pinto, will present a recital by musical duo violinist Francesca Dego and pianist Francesca Leonardi. The event is promoted by CIDIM (the Italian National Music Council), with support by SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) as part of the “S’illumina” project and the Suono Italiano project, with support from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism – Directorate General of Performances.
Francesca Dego is considered to be one of the best contemporary performers in Italy. She has been recording with Deutsche Grammophon since 2012; and her recording debut consisted of 24 Caprices by Paganini, garnering unanimous praise from critics and the public. She recorded sonatas by Beethoven for violin and piano between 2013 and 2015. She has been a regular guest with leading international orchestras, including: the Tokyo Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Grosses Orchestre Graz, Orchestra Filarmonica of Oviedo, Kyushu Symphony, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tarstastan State Symphony Orchestra (Russia) and has playerd at the Royal Festival Hall in London. She plays with a prestigious Francesco Ruggeri violin (Cremona 1697) and a Guarneri del Gesù, previously-Ricci (Cremona 1734) courtesy of Florian Leonhard Fine Violins of London.
Francesca Leonardi “is an absolutely fantastic pianist; she combines pure, enchanting musical talent with impeccable technique,” said famous violinist Salvatore Accardo; she is the first Italian female pianist to record for the prestigious label Deutsche Grammophon. She toured Japan, China and the United States with the Emperor Concerto by Beethoven, and the Mozart Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor K 466 in South America, where she performed at the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, for the Semana musical Llao Llao” in Bariloche, and at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro for the opening of the 2014 World Cup.
