catalogue: THE VIOLA IN MY LIFE
Matteo Fossi
Matteo Fossi, born and raised in Florence, studied piano at the Fiesole School of Music with Tiziano Mealli, graduating in 1999 from the Conservatory of Ferrara with highest honors. He later continued his studies with Maria Tipo and Pietro De Maria, then with Pier Narciso Masi, and in 2001 attended Maurizio Pollini’s seminar at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena as an active participant.
Highly active as a concert performer from a very young age, he is now regarded as one of the leading Italian musicians. He studied with artists such as Piero Farulli, Pavel Vernikov, Alexander Lonquich, the Trio di Milano, and Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1995 he founded the Quartetto Klimt, one of Italy’s most active chamber ensembles, and for more than twenty-five years he has pursued an intense career as a chamber musician in various formations, from piano duo to sextet, recording several world premiere complete editions of works by Brahms, Bartók, Poulenc, Ligeti, and Schönberg.
With these ensembles, as well as as a soloist, Fossi has performed in all major Italian concert series and, abroad, in important theatres and festivals in Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, England, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, the United States, Brazil, China, and South Korea. He regularly collaborates with internationally renowned artists such as Antony Pay, Mario Ancillotti, Pier Narciso Masi, Maurizio Baglini, Roberto Plano, Lorenza Borrani, Calogero Palermo, Giovanni Sollima, Alexander Ivashkin, Massimo Quarta, Yuval Gotlibovich, Othmar Müller, Moni Ovadia, Milena Vukotic, Maddalena Crippa, Mario Caroli, Andrea Oliva, Sonia Bergamasco, Luigi Lo Cascio, Suzanne Linke, and the Quartetto di Cremona.
He has an extensive discography, recorded for labels such as Decca, Universal, Brilliant, Naxos, Nimbus, Stradivarius, Tactus, Amadeus, Unicef, and Fenice Diffusione Musicale. In 2014 his first solo album, dedicated to Brahms and released by Hortus, was enthusiastically received by the specialized press, leading in subsequent years to six more recordings devoted to Schumann, Schubert, Debussy, Chopin, Beethoven, and Bartók. All his recordings have been met with critical acclaim.
Active also in music organization and promotion, he has invited to Florence some of the world’s foremost musical personalities, including Rostropovich, Kagel, Penderecki, Sofia Gubaidulina, Natalia Gutman, and the Kronos Quartet. Matteo Fossi teaches piano at the Rinaldo Franci Conservatory in Siena and for fifteen years taught chamber music at the Fiesole School of Music, where he also served as vice president. He is regularly invited to give seminars and masterclasses in Italy and abroad. In 2019 he was awarded the prestigious Medaglia Laurenziana by the International Medicean Academy of Florence; in 2021 he was unanimously elected Director of the Rinaldo Franci Conservatory in Siena, a position he held for three years. Since 2024 he has been co-artistic director of the Suoni Riflessi Association in Florence.
Margherita Di Giovanni
Margherita Di Giovanni graduated with highest honors in violin from the Conservatorio”G. Rossini” in Pesaro under the guidance of Mario Ferraris. She subsequently obtained her Master’s Degree (Second Level Academic Diploma) in performance from the Conservatorio “G. Verdi” in Milan, studying with Daniele Gay and again earning top marks.
She attended masterclasses with Pavel Vernikov, Massimo Quarta, Klaidi Sahatçi, and Rainer Honeck, as well as the Advanced Violin Course at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese with Enzo Pellegrino and Ilya Grubert.
In 2010 she began studying the viola with Simone Gramaglia, earning her Master’s Degree in Viola with highest honors and distinction (summa cum laude) from the Conservatorio “A. Casella” in L’Aquila.
Highly appreciated from the outset for her qualities as a violist, she has collaborated and continues to collaborate with numerous chamber ensembles in major concert series and festivals. She has taken part in masterclasses with Larry Dutton, Robert McDuffie, and Aida Carmen Soanea, and in 2012 was selected to perform in the Rome Chamber Music Festival.
A founding member of the Quartetto Guadagnini until December 2015, she completed advanced string quartet studies with the Quartetto di Cremona at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona and attended courses held by Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA).
With the Quartetto Guadagnini she won the Farulli Prize at the 33rd Franco Abbiati Awards and performed at major Italian and international festivals and concert seasons, including the Stradivari Festival, Unione Musicale di Torino, Amici della Musica di PalermoandPadova, Bologna Festival, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, Teatro La Fenice, and Le Sion Festival.
She has appeared with the Quartetto di Cremona in quintet and sextet formations for the MiTo Festival, the Filarmonica di Trento, and the Teatro Verdi in Pordenone.
After several years of steady collaboration as co-principal and associate principal viola with I Solisti Aquilani, she is currently principal viola of the Colibrì Ensemble – Chamber Orchestra of Pescara, and since 2024 has been a member of the Quartetto Klimt, one of Italy’s longest-established and most active chamber ensembles.
Since 2021 she has been teaching chamber music at the Conservatorio “Rinaldo Franci” in Siena.