The Paduan violinist Federico Guglielmo is acclaimed by international critics for his “extraordinary versatility” and “mature interpretive confidence”, views which are further confirmed by the appreciation garnered for his live performances and the prizes he has won for his numerous recordings. Winner of the Antonio Vivaldi International Recording Prize, the Boston Globe describes him as “the new star of the ancient music landscape” while the French music magazine Diapason, which awarded him the Diapason d’Or for his recording of Vivaldi concertos, praised his “sparkling virtuosity which provides a cross section of everything of which the violin is capable”. His “brilliant and entertaining” interpretation of Haydn’s Violin Concertos led the American critic R. Maxham to write in Fanfare that “Between Isaac Stern’s energetic approach to these works, those of celebrated Mozart interpreters like Szymon Goldberg and Arthur Grumiaux, and the insightful explorations of Christian Tetzlaff seem like halfway houses on the journey to Guglielmo’s more full- blown re-creations. Those who admire Haydn’s concertos should be among the first to rush to acquire these performances, but everyone should join that rush sooner or later.”

His international career began at just 22 when he won first prize in the Vittorio Gui International Chamber Music competition in Florence; the same year (1991), having won the national competition for teaching posts, he became the youngest professor of strings at an Italian conservatory, a post he still holds at the F.Venezze Conservatory in Rovigo.

Federico Guglielmo was born in Padua in 1968. He obtained his diploma from the B.Marcello Conservatory in Venice and then attended violin masterclasses with S.Accardo, V.Spivakov and I.Stern, chamber music masterclasses with the Beaux Arts Trio, the Trio di Trieste, the Amadeus, Italiano and La Salle Quartets and an orchestral conducting masterclass with G.Gelmetti. Still very young he was invited as guest solo concertmaster for more than 10 years with some of the most important symphonic orchestras in Italy and abroad (RAI Symphony Orchestra, Rome, Italy – RAI Symphony Orchestra, Turin, Italy – Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Italy – Orchestra del Teatro Giuseppe Verdi, Triest, Italy – Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, Genua, Italy -Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo, Naples, Italy – Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese, L’Aquila, Italy – Orquestra Filarmonica de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain) collaborating with conductors like Abbado, Inbal, Gelmetti, Baudo, Marriner, etc) a role he is still happy to perform occasionally today as soloist/concertmaster with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.

He also won prizes in many national (Vittorio Veneto) and international (Paris, London, Canada) competitions; since then he has regularly performed at the main concert halls such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Wigmore Hall in London, Società del Quartetto in Milan, Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Herkuleesaal in Munich, Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory, Hall, Opera City and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Izumi and Symphony Hall in Osaka, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and the City Recital Hall in Sydney. In his role as principal violin and leader of the string ensemble I Solisti Filarmonici Italiani he has led concert tours every two years since 1990, in Japan and the US, and has made more than 40 recordings for Denon Nippon Columbia.

In the last few years he has concentrated more on playing/conducting, including opera. He conducted the world première of “il Finto Turco” by N.Piccini at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (live Euroradio broadcast by Rai Radio3) and the first performance in modern times of “Ottone in Villa” by A. Vivaldi (recorded by Brilliant Classics); he was also responsible for the reworking of “la Dirindina” by D.Scarlatti for MiTo/Settembre Musica. The CD of Handel’s Water Music (CPO) which he conducted was awarded “First Choice” (BBC Radio 3/Building a Library) and “recommended” by Gramophone for its “splendid playing, involving and vibrant”.

As both a baroque/classical/modern violin soloist and as a conductor he is regularly invited to perform by major ensembles worldwide. As a baroque violinist/conductor he led the renowned Academy of Ancient Music on tour in England and was subsequently invited by groups such as The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, the Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra meanwhile as a “modern” violinist/conductor he led and played as soloist with : Opera di Firenze (Maggio Musicale Musicale Fiorentino), Florence, Italy – Orchestra del Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy – Accademia Nazionale di S.Cecilia, Rome, Italy – I Pomeriggi Musicali, Milan, Italy – New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo, Japan – Osaka Symphony Orch. Osaka, Japan – Orquestra Filarmonica de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain, etc.

In 1995, together with his father, he formed the period instrument ensemble L’Arte dell’Arco, with whom he has performed in major European festivals and recorded more than 100 CDs for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Sony/Bmg Classical, Chandos, CPO, Brilliant, Stradivarius, Asv Gaudeamus, Dynamic and Rai Trade. The final volume of the complete 33 CD set of G. Tartini’s 125 Violin Concertos for the italian label Dynamic was released in 2013 and in 2014 the new Vivaldi Edition (including 19 CDs with all the instrumental printed works Op.1/12) was published by Brilliant Classics. Federico Guglielmo collaborates in the “baroque field” with musicians such as Bob van Asperen, Pieter Wispelwey, Stanley Ritchie, Emma Kirkby, Michala Petri, Monica Huggett and Dan Laurin. He has performed Bach’s Violin Concertos with conductor Gustav Leonhardt, Tartini and Vivaldi Violin Concertos with conductor Sigiswald Kuijken, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Gran Canaria Philharmonic, conducted by Christopher Hogwood and the Franz Clements’s Violin Concerto with Reinhard Goebel (first European performance in modern times). He has taught courses on baroque violin in Italy, Brazil, and Japan and for the New South Wales Conservatory in Australia.

In addition to his solo work mainly focused on the historically informed performance Federico Guglielmo also has a great passion for chamber music. He was a member of the Stradivari Trio, which he founded in 1992, and has played with musicians such as Giovanni Sollima, Mario Brunello, Kathleen Battle, Hansjorg Schellenberger, Wolfram Christ. Chamber music recordings include Mendelssohn Octet and Sextet (CPO), Brahms Piano Trios (Dynamic), Debussy Chamber Music with Piano (Brilliant), Mozart Piano Trios (CPO), named as CD of the month by the German magazine Fono Forum, and Grieg’s Sonatas for Violin and Piano for Decca.

He plays on a baroque violin made by Bernardus Calcanius (Genua, 1710)