Biography - Tafelmusik

BIOGRAPHY
ELISA CITTERIO, MUSIC DIRECTOR DESIGNATE
The “superb” Italian violinist Elisa Citterio (The Guardian) is renowned for her stunning virtuoso
performances on baroque violin and her innovative approach to period performance. In January
2017, she was appointed Music Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir,
“one of the world’s top baroque orchestras” (Gramophone).
Citterio divides her artistic life between orchestral work, including her former role as
concertmaster and soloist with the orchestra of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,
and an intense schedule as a chamber musician.
She has recorded and toured, often as leader or concertmaster, with such ensembles as Dolce &
Tempesta, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, Accordone, Zefiro, la Venexiana, La Risonanza,
Ensemble 415, Concerto Italiano, Orquestra del Monsalvat, Il Giardino Armonico, and Orchestra
Academia 1750. Since 2004 she has been a member of the Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di
Milano.
Citterio was born in Brescia, Italy, and grew up in a musical family: her mother and brother are
composers and her two sisters are professional musicians. Elisa began playing piano and violin as
a pre-schooler, and as a teenager played baroque sonatas with her mother and sister. At sixteen
she began formal studies in violin and viola at the L. Marenzio Conservatory in Brescia under full
scholarship for five consecutive years. During her time at the Conservatory, she won many prizes
in national competitions and graduated with the highest honours. She continued her postgraduate studies with Franco Gulli, Corrado Romano, Dora Schwarzberg, Matis Vaitsner, Ilya
Grubert, and Dejan Bogdanovich.
In 2000, Citterio was selected as concertmaster and soloist with the orchestra of the Accademia
del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, where she received intensive professional training in orchestral
and chamber music repertoire, as well as violin technique. She made her debut at La Scala in
2000, playing the solo violin part in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with La Scala’s principal violist
Danilo Rossi, under the direction of Stefano Ranzani.
Soon after graduating from the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, she began studying
baroque violin technique, taking part in master classes with Enrico Onofri and studying with
Chiara Banchini at the Schola Chantorum Basilensis, and with Luigi Mangiocavallo in Rome.
Between 2000 and 2004, Citterio won numerous prestigious orchestral auditions with such
orchestras as I Virtuosi, the orchestra of the Opera of Rome, the orchestra of the Arena of Verona,
and the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Riccardo Muti.
Citterio’s discography of more than 35 recordings includes Vivaldi concertos with Accademia I
Filarmonici; Bach and Vivaldi concertos with Europa Galante; Handel Fireworks with Zefiro; Storie
di Napoli with Accordone; Vivaldi The Four Seasons with Brixia Musicalis; Marini sonatas for solo
violin with Opera Prima; Handel arias featuring soprano Sandrine Piau, and Corelli concerti grossi,
both with Accademia Bizantina; the Goldberg Project, a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations
transcribed for string quartet; Handel arias featuring Julia Lezhnieva, and Haydn symphonies,
both with Il Giardino Armonico; Monteverdi madrigals with La Venexiana; Schuster quartets with
Joachim Quartet; C.P.E. Bach trio sonatas with Helianthus Ensemble; Beethoven's Eroica
Symphony with Orquestra del Monsalvat, and a number of opera recordings with the Orchestra
e Coro del Teatro alla Scala under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Edward
Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Lorin Maazel, and Riccardo Muti.
For the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons, together with Stefano Montanari, Citterio co-chaired the
baroque violin studies program at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan.