Vittorio Ghielmi, Viola da gamba

Born in Milano, Italy, still very young he attracts notice for the intensity of his musical interpretation and for his new approach to the viol and to the sound of ancient music repertoire.

Winner of Concorso Internazionale Romano Romanini per strumenti ad arco  (Brescia 1995) and Erwin Bodky Award (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1997).

As soloist or conductor (London Philharmonia, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Bowl Hall Hollywood-Graun concerto, Wiener Philharmoniker, Il Giardino Armonico, Freiburger Baroque orchestra etc.), in duo with Lorenzo Ghielmi or Luca Pianca, he plays in the most important halls of Europe, USA, Japan (Musikverein Wien, Berliner Philharmoniker Hall Berlin, Casals Hall, Tokio etc.). He has been invited to play as soloist the world première of many “new music” composition (Kevin Volans, Teatro Regio di Torino; Nadir Vassena, Berliner Philharmoniker Hall).

His ensemble Il Suonar Parlante, devoted to a new investigation of ancient repertoire, played also with important jazz players as Kenny Wheeler, Uri Caine, Jim Black, Don Byron, Markus Stockhausen or with pop singer like Vinicio Capossela. Several jazzists and composers wrote new music for this ensemble.

He has recorded several solo CD winning several critic prizes. He is one of the rare gamba players who is normally demanded to play as solo performer with orchestras, as well as with important jazz and rock players. In 2007 conceive and conduct a big spectacle around Buxtehude's "Membra Jesu Nostri", with the american film maker Marc Reshovsky. He worked as Riccardo Muti assistant in Salzburg festival.

He is professor in Conservatorio Luca Marenzio (Brescia) as well as in severals master-classes and Universities. In the Politecnico della cultura, delle arti e delle lingue, Milano, he organizes cycles of studies and concerts on the ancient instrumental techniques and their survival in "ethnical" musical traditions.

Ghielmi plays on a gamba made by Michel Colichon, Paris 1688.