Irene Russo · piano

BIOGRAPHY

The Italian pianist Irene Russo (1974) was praised by the legendary Martha Argerich as "one of the best young musicians I have ever heard in my life" and appeared on the major international stages as one of the most interesting talents of her generation. She was a student of Franco Scala and the legendary Lazar Berman at the International Piano Academy "Incontri col Maestro" and also studied with Alicia de Larrocha in Barcelona. She won the Clara Schumann International Piano Competition in Düsseldorf in 2000 and was honoured for the best contemporary interpretation at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2002. Since then, she has begun a fruitful collaboration with the German composer Jörg Widmann, who wrote his celebrated "Hallstudie" especially for her.

Her Franz Liszt album (double CD on Brilliant Classics), which was released worldwide in 2016, was nominated as "Best Instrumental CD of the Month" by the renowned magazine Gramophone. The recording was broadcast by various international radio stations such as BBC Radio 3, Bayerischer Rundfunk and RAI Radio 3 and was voted one of the best Liszt interpretations by the Franz Liszt Society Weimar. 

Irene Russo has worked with renowned conductors including John Axelrod, Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Susanna Mälkki, David Stern, Fabio Mastrangelo, Alexander Liebreich, Marc Andreae, Misha Damev, Ovidiu Balan and Michel Tilkin. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras such as the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, deFilarmonie van Vlaanderen and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

A versatile and experimental artist, she has collaborated with visual artists, dancers and composers such as David Dawson, the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Kathryn Bennett's director, Patricia Neary (Balanchine's Etoile). Together with the Dutch pianist Jeroen Van Veen, she is the founder and regular performer of the Piano Ensemble. In 2005 she recorded the "Integrale" by Simeon Ten Holt Multiple Pianos Work for Brilliant Classics. Her subsequent CD release of Ten Holt's best-known piece "Canto Ostinato" became the best-selling classical album in the Netherlands, selling more than 15,000 copies.