Join the Friends of Music!

Paolo Pandolfo began his research in the field of renaissance and baroque musical idioms around 1979, together with violinist Enrico Gatti and harpsicordist Rinaldo Alessandrini, while studying with Jordi Savall at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.

In 1982 he became a member of Savall's ensemble Hesperion XX , playing with that group until 1990 throughout the world, and making dozens of recordings (among them Bach's Kunst der Fuge,  John Dowland's consort music, Neapolitan Renaissance Music, etc.). In 1990, after the huge success of his first recording as a soloist (C.P.E.Bach's Sonatas for Viola da Gamba), he was nominated as Professor of viola da gamba at his alma mater, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where he now concentrates his teaching activities, whilst his performing carrier takes him all over the world, playing with artists such as Emma Kirkby, Rolf Lislevand, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Mitzi Meyerson, José Miguel Moreno, and many others. Since 1992 he has directed Labyrinto, a group of four or five viola da gambas, which is dedicated to the huge "consort music" repertoire.

Paolo Pandolfo has recorded for radio and television stations world wide, and for record companies such as Astrée, Emi, Philips, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Tactus, Simphonia. Since 1997 all his recordings are by the Spanish leading record company GLOSSA. He started his collaboration with them in 1997 recording the first world integrale of A. Forqueray's Pieces de Viole, followed by "The Spirit of Gambo"(music by T.Hume with Labyrinto and Emma Kirkby). His first unaccompained recital, "A Solo," was pointed as one of the best releases of the year 1998 by Gramophone. He dedicated two releases of works by Marin Marais: "Le Labyrinthe et autres histoires," dedicated to character music by the great French composer and “Le Grand Ballet,” focused on his gestures and dance music. His trancription for viola da gamba of J.S. Bach's six Solo Cello Suites, released in 2000, has been beyond its great success an important musical event. All his recordings have received amazingly positive reviews as well as many awards by the most important musical magazines.

Paolo Pandolfo is invited to perform and to give masterclasses all over the world. He has been described as the Yo Yo Ma of the viol,  building bridges between the past and the present, bringing spontaneous and immediate life in the perfomance of baroque and renaissance music using medias such as improvisation, transcriptions, and composition of modern pieces, being conviced that the patrimony of ancient music can be a powerful inspiration for the future of the western musical tradition.

The address of his website is: www.paolopandolfo.com/