If the most famous violin competition in the worldthe Paganini of Genoa, chooses as his new artistic director a 35 year old talent, Nicola Bruzzo, it means that that devil Niccolò never ceases to amaze. Even more so in Italy, where to find a young man at the top of a prestigious institution is truly rare. «The first to be affected by it is me, I feel al seventh heaven» assures Bruzzo, whose appointment to Paganini, however eventful it may be polemical utterances of Salvatore Accardo, president at the end of his mandate, suggests that the Prize intends to make use of his fresh look for a less academic and more informative musical approach.
Born in Ferrara in 1989, the same year in which Claudio Abbado founded Ferrara MusicBruzzo quickly managed to establish himself on the international plan as an appreciated violinist in the best symphony and chamber orchestras, as well as lively musical organizer.
«No one in my family knew how to play, I came across music by accidentin fifth grade thanks to two teachers who came to present some tools. I was impressed with the violin. When I got home I said: I would like to learn to play it. And my mother, even though she was busy with a completely different worldthat of graphics, pushed me to follow my passion.”
Having graduated from the Bologna Conservatory, young Nicola begins his career international training: studies in Weimar with Friedemann Eichhorn, in Berlin with Natalia Prischepenko and the Artemis Quartet, collaborates with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and since 2022 joins Enzo Restagno in the artistic direction of Ferrara Music.
“A very Abbadian route. Just as the lesson I keep in mind is Abbadian, thelisten to each other in small groups». A chamber music look that will certainly mark his direction at the Paganini. «Besides for the highest quality who crowned winners such as Leonidas Kavakos, Ilya Gringolts, Natalia Prischepenko, Isabelle Faust, Giuseppe Gibboni, Paganini is known for being a haute horlogerie device right from the pre-selections of the candidates, heard live by the jury in their cities. What I would like is for those young talents to also know interact with the public. The classical audience is thinning because in Italy there is a lack of music education. The generation between 40 and 60 has gotten lost in the depths of Youtube and Spotify, but twenty-year-olds are more elastic. If instead of throwing them into listening without a net, you tell them what they are going to hear, there is hope that they will become curious.”
