Francesco Dillon

Biography

Francesco Dillon graduated with the maximum of degrees at the Conservatorio L.Cherubini in Firenze under the inspirational guidance of Andrea Nannoni. Other very influential teachers where David Geringas, Mario Brunello and Amedeo Baldovino and for the composition studies Salvatore Sciarrino. Beside his solo activity (with Orchestra nazionale della RAI, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana,Orchestra Haydn among the others) he’s very active as cellist of the Quartetto Prometeo (wich tours regularly in Europe, Japan and South America). His deep interest in contemporary music led him to collaborate closely and regularly with some of the most important composers of today such as Gavin Bryars, Ivan Fedele, Luca Francesconi, Philip Glass, Vinko Globokar, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jonathan Harvey, Toshio Hosokawa, Giya Kancheli, David Lang, Arvo Part, Henri Pousseur, Steve Reich, Kaja Saariaho, Salvatore Sciarrino, John Zorn, and with well renowned electronic musicians such as Matmos, Pansonic,Scanner, Alva Noto, Midaircondo. As a member of the internationally acclaimed group AlterEgo and for his solo projects he has performed in all the major contemporary music festivals (Stockholm New Music, MaerzMusik, Festival Archipel, Ircam, Romaeuropa Festival, Ultima Festival Oslo, Wien Modern, Gaida Festival, Huddersfield Festival, Nous Sons Barcellona, Taktlos Berna, Musica Electronica Nova Wroclaw, Teatro San Martin Buenos Aires , Munich Biennale, Bologna Festival, Milano Musica, Biennale Venezia among others). He regularly plays chamber music with partners such as I. Arditti, G. Carmignola, M. Campanella, P. Farulli, V. Hagen, A. Lonquich, A. Lucchesini, E. Pace, R. Schmidt (Hagen string quartet), P. Vernikov. He won several competitions and with the quartet prizes at Pague spring (1st prize 1998), ARD Munich, Bordeaux. His performances were broadcasted by the German ARD, Saarländischer Rundfunk and Bayerische Rundfunk, the English BBC, Radio France, the Austrian ORF, Australian ABC and regularly for the Italian RAI Radio 3. He recorded for the labels Aulos, Dynamic, Ricordi, Stradivarius and Touch. His most recent releases are the first world recordings of Variazioni for cello and orchestra by Salvatore Sciarrino, rewarded with the prestigious Diapason d’or, the recently discovered Ballata by Giacinto Scelsi with the Italian National Radio Orchestra, and the debut album of his improvisation project with David Marana, Bowline. Next will be a Schumann album on Brilliant label. He has tought for more than ten years at the Scuola di musica di Fiesole.