Mario Brunello

In 1986, cellist Mario Brunello became the first Italian to take first prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He has gone on to an international career as a soloist, chamber player, orchestra founder and conductor, and musical entrepreneur. Brunello was born in Castelfranco in Italy's northern Veneto region in 1960. He studied at the Venice Conservatory of Music, where his principal teachers were Adriano Vendramelli and Antonio Janigro, the latter a cellist with whom Brunello would come to share an interest in conducting as well. In 1986, he took first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in the cello section, sharing the honor with Kirill Rodin. In 1994, Brunello founded the Orchestra d'Archi Italiana, with which he has continued to perform and conduct. In 1995, Brunello made his recording debut with the Villa-Lobos Orchestra on a recording of Villa-Lobos' Bachiana Brasileiras on the Ermitage label. In 2001, he was featured with a group of other Italian players on the Aura label in a recording of Brahms' Sextets. Brunello has continued to play and record chamber music enthusiastically. His collaborators are a distinguished group that includes pianists Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini, violinist Gideon Kremer, and the Borodin and Alban Berg Quartets. Brunello's orchestral credits include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. He is active as a jazz performer, and he plays the rare Baroque violoncello piccolo. Brunello has served as artistic director of the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and in his hometown of Castelfranco, he maintains a busy schedule of concerts, lectures, and more at an old ironwork factory, the Capannone Antiruggine. Brunello has recorded for the Egea, Alpha, and Arcana labels, among others; on Arcana, he released a recording of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Four Sonatas for Solo Cello in 2024. ~ James Manheim, Rovi