Winner of first prize at the 20th International J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, Paolo Bonomini is currently principal cellist with Camerata Salzburg and is Jens Peter Maintz’s teaching assistant at the Berlin University of the Arts.
His debut CD, *Violoncello Italiano*, released by Genuin Classics, received praise from various sources and was named ‘record of the month’ in *Fono Forum*, one of Germany’s leading music magazines. A review in the Italian music journal *Archi* spoke of the “beauty and uncommon qualities” found on the CD.
Paolo made his orchestral debut at the age of 15, performing Camille Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras across Europe, South America and Australia, including Camerata Bern, the Biel Symphony Orchestra, the Pauliner Kammerorchester, the Odessa Chamber Orchestra, the Virtuosi di Praga, the Orchestra del Festival Pianistico di Brescia e Bergamo, and the Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, and has performed live on Italy’s Radio RAI 3 on numerous occasions, both as a soloist and a chamber musician.
As a founding member of the Boccherini Trio, Paolo enjoys an active international chamber music career and has performed at venues such as Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig and the MITO Festival. He has also toured Italy’s most important theatres alongside Giovanni Sollima, as part of the project “Tenebrae, il principe dei Musici”, and has collaborated with other renowned musicians such as Salvatore Accardo, Bruno Giuranna, Franco Petracchi, Bruno Canino, Mario Brunello, Lucas Macias Navarro, Herbert Schuch, Tommaso Lonquich and Avo Kouyoumdjian.
Paolo has been invited to perform as Principal Cellist with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and regularly appears as guest principal cellist with Camerata Bern and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In addition, he has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and has played under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Harding, Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Roger Norrington and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Paolo completed his studies at the Bern University of the Arts and the Berlin University of the Arts as a student of Mario Brunello, Antonio Meneses and Jens Peter Maintz, and has taken part in masterclasses with Giovanni Sollima, Enrico Dindo and David Geringas. He has received further training in chamber music from Rainer Schmidt at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland.
Interview
In conversation with Paolo Bonomini
Describe CAMERATA in three words in your mother tongue!
Familiare, Agile, Appassionata
How does making music in a chamber orchestra feel to you?
It feels like an extended chamber ensemble, like a large quartet with wind instruments and percussion. Although the concertmaster or our guest conductors set the interpretative direction, input also comes from the players: every musician counts and can make a difference. Playing in a chamber orchestra also often feels more like playing together than playing in a large symphonic orchestra, where sometimes you just have to follow the conductor.&
If Mozart were still alive: what would you like to say to him?
After expressing my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude, I would dare to ask if he could play a little something for me, on the violin or the piano, and I believe that would be one of the most precious moments of my life.
