Federico first came to prominence after winning the Salzburg Mozart Competition in 2011 and the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2012. Since then, he has been performing with orchestras including the Mariinsky Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RAI National Symphony, Royal Scottish National, RTÉ National Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Wiener Kammerorchester, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic; at venues such as the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Munich Herkulessaal, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Elbphilharmonie, Barbican Hall, Kumho Art Centre in Seoul, Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Dublin National Concert Hall, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Royal Festival Hall and the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg.
Federico has worked with esteemed conductors including Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vasily Petrenko, Juraj Valčuha, Thomas Søndergård, Alan Buribayev, Joji Hattori, Jasper Kaspszyk, Ed Spanjaard, Roman Kofman, Alpesh Chauhan, Sir Mark Elder, Dennis Russel Davies, Ion Marin and John Axelrod.
He records exclusively for Chandos Records, with whom he released his first disc of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti in May 2018. This was followed by a disc of Bach and Bach-Busoni in 2019. His third Chandos album will be out in March 2020.
To coincide with his debut at the Southbank Centre’s International Piano Series in April 2014, Federico’s debut solo CD, produced by Champs Hill Records, was released to great critical acclaim, featuring works by Beethoven, Scriabin and Mussorgsky. BBC Music Magazine wrote of the disc: ‘Colli’s captivating ability to illuminate even the most densely packed musical terrain emerges as a structure of supreme logic, propelled rather than merely embellished by mystical ripplings and flutterings.’
Performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, he made his London concerto debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, about which The Times wrote: ‘Played with formidable delicacy by Federico Colli, with limpid tone and calligraphic phrasing. Colli takes care to seduce before sweeping the listener off his or her feet.
His recitals and festivals appearance in the last seasons include Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Lucerne Piano Festival, Lincoln Center in New York, Berlin Konzerthaus, Fazioli Concert Hall, Ravinia Festival, Ferrara Musica, Eilat Chamber Music Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, MiTo Settembre Musica and Brescia and Bergamo International Piano Festival. He has recently played with orchestras such as Hamburger Symphoniker, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Janáček and Rijeka Philharmonics, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Stamford Symphony, and Stockholm Philharmonic.
Federico’s concerts have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, RAI Radio and TV, Mariinsky TV, Polish Radio and ORF Austria. Federico Colli has had the honour to share the stage with renowned musicians such as Lang Lang, Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire and Leonidas Kavakos.
Highlights of 19/20 seasons include recitals at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, for London Piano Festival, for the Bechstein Festival, for London BBC Radio 3 and a recital tour in North America (San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, San Josè and Vancouver). He will play concerts with La Scala String Quartet and Guadagnini Quartet, with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, Rai Symphony Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev in Turin, Athens Symphony Orchestra, Sichuan Symphony Orchestra (with a tour through China) and with the Janáček Philharmonic. He will also make his debut at Paris’ Philharmonie with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France (with a 7 cities tour in France).
The Music Section of the UK Critics’ Circle included Federico Colli among the recipients of its 2018 Awards: he won the Emerging Talent / Instrumentalist one.
Born in Brescia in 1988, he studied at the Milan Conservatory, the Imola International Piano Academy and the Salzburg Mozarteum under the guidance of Sergio Marengoni, Konstantin Bogino, Boris Petrushansky and Pavel Gililov.
In 2011, he received a ‘Grosso d’Argento’ from the mayor of his hometown, in recognition of his artistic achievements. In 2014, Federico was selected by International Piano magazine as one of the ‘30 pianists under 30 who are likely to dominate the world stage in years to come’.