Gatto is a violinist in the grand tradition, but he never lets his mastery of the flashy stuff overpower the taste and musical sensitivity’

— Broadstreet Review Philadelphia

About

Lorenzo Gatto was born in Brussels in December 1986. He started playing the violin at the age of five with Dirk van de Moortel. At eleven years old, he enters the Brussels Royal Conservatoire of Music in the class of Veronique Bogaerts, where he graduates at seventeen only with the highest honour.

He then studied with Herman Krebbers in the Netherlands, Augustin Dumay at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and he finishes his academic journey by studying four years with Boris Kuschnir in Vienna. His work and determination are brilliantly rewarded as he won both the Second Prize and the Public’s Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2009.

‘Above all, I want to sound honest. There is fragility in my tone, it is a reflection of who I am as a person. That is what music is to me: an expression of human fragility.’

His nomination as a ‘Rising Star’ in 2010 allows Lorenzo to make his recital debut on major European stages including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Musikverein, the Cité de la Musique in Paris and many others. It further expanded the possibilities of collaboration with orchestras and conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Vladimir Spivakov, Walter Weller, Jan Willem de Vriend, Jaap van Zweden, Martin Sieghart, Angrey Boreyko and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

In chamber music, Lorenzo shared the stage with, amongst others, Maria João Pires, Mischa Maisky, Martha Argerich, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Frank Braley and Gérard Caussé.

In 2015, Lorenzo started collaborating with the talented Belgian pianist Julien Libeer. Together, they recorded all of Beethoven sonatas and released a disc that was awarded with a Diapason d’Or of the year.

Lorenzo Gatto plays the ‘Joachim’ Stradivari from 1698.

In his spare time, Lorenzo enjoys a lifelong passion for everything that flies. Look up and see if you can spot him high in the sky, arriving at a concert flying a small plane or even a paraglider.

 

On tour

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Videos

Beethoven | Violin Sonata No.5 ‘Spring’: IV. Rondo

Building on the success of their first disc of Beethoven violin sonatas, which won a Diapason d’Or of the Year (the magazine hailed ‘the birth of a great duo’) and ‘Choc’ de Classica, Lorenzo Gatto and Julien Libeer continue their complete recording of the cycle.

Paganini | Violin Concerto No. 1

Lorenzo Gatto, the Orchestra da Camera del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Michael Guttman at the Pietrasanta in Concerto Festival 2015.

About Lorenzo’s performance of this work in Germany, the Rhein-Zeitung wrote: […] ‘with an astonishing virtuosity, whilst totally refraining from ecstatic show effects.’

Ravel⎜ Tzigane

Lorenzo Gatto / Orchestre de Chambre Pelléas / Benjamin Levy
Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 9 August 2014. A Green Room Creatives Production

Beethoven⎜ Romance in F major

Lorenzo Gatto / Orchestre de Chambre Pelléas / Benjamin Levy
Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 9 August 2014. A Green Room Creatives Production

‘Flowing notes by way of an impressive technique’ – NRC

Queen Elisabeth Competition 2009⎜Finals

22 Year old Belgium violinist Lorenzo Gatto performing the first movement of George Enescu’s Violin Sonata No 3 in A minor Op. 25. Lorenzo won Second Prize and the Public’s Prize.